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From: Thomas Heger <ttt_heg@web.de>
Newsgroups: sci.physics.relativity
Subject: Re: Langevin's paradox again
Date: Sun, 14 Jul 2024 10:22:56 +0200
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Am Samstag000013, 13.07.2024 um 11:36 schrieb Richard Hachel:
> Le 13/07/2024 à 10:27, Thomas Heger a écrit :
>> Am Samstag000013, 13.07.2024 um 09:30 schrieb Thomas Heger:
>> ...
>>> After university he went to Bern and worked in the patent office there.
>>>
>>> But state officials (called 'Beamte' in German) needed to be born 
>>> citizens (at least in Germany) in those days.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> The word 'Amt' is the critical point here!
>>
>> Usualy the German 'Patentamt' is translated to 'patent office'.
>>
>> But this would blur the distiction between private and state owned 
>> offices.
>>
>> 'Amt' means 'office', but has a certain important difference to the 
>> English word 'office'.
>>
>> The German 'Amt' necessarily means 'state owned' and is more related 
>> to the English 'agency'.
>>
>> The word 'Amt' is now the root of 'Beamter'.
>>
>> Beamter can be decomposed to 'be made a member of the staff of an Amt'.
>>
>> In such a position you get a certain status, which is usually very 
>> desirable, like lifelong emploiment and generous pensions.
>>
>> Such a status was usually granted only to born citizens in the German 
>> speaking world, because you need to represent the state as Beamter and 
>> had to swear a certain oath.
>>
>> Now the Germann word 'Patentamt' (patent office') contains the phrase 
>> 'Amt', hence only 'Beamte' were allowed to work there.
>>
>> And since only born citizens were allowed as 'Beamter' (state 
>> officials), Einstein needed to be born in Swizzerland.
>>
>> (today this is a little different, but in the early 20th century, the 
>> state was still very authoritarian and had certain ideas about how to 
>> recruit the state's employees)
>>
>>
>> Iow: his CV was a most likely faked.
>>
>> And if something was wrong, all other parts are also questionable, 
>> too, especially his name and being jewish.
>>
>> The last sounds strange, but Einstein actually declined the presidency 
>> of Israel, which was offered to him.
>>
>> A good reason to do that would have been, if he wasn't a Jew.
>>
>>
>> TH
> 
> There are indeed quite a few things that pose problems in the life of 
> Albert Einstein.
> Perhaps the most important is this: he worked at the Berne patent office 
> as a copyist, and he had the opportunity to read the patents he copied, 
> to validate them.
> It is very strange that it took a few years for the greatest 
> mathematician in the world, who communicated with Lorentz, Langevin and 
> many others, and with considerable experience, to come out with the 
> correct Lorentz transformations that everyone was looking for (Lorentz 
> he himself wrote horrible pieces which were false).
> Poincaré will in fact release the correct transformations in June 1905 
> after much reflection.
> And bang, an unknown copyist from the copy office brought out a similar 
> article with the same name "on the kinematics of the electron" with the 
> same transformations in September 1905.
> Aged 27!!!

Not only his age was a problem.

Einstein had a number of other problem, he had to overcome, to become a 
genius:

he worked in the 'Patentamt' (patent office) of Bern for six days a week 
with ten hours each.

This is a lot of time, but those were the conditions of work in the 
early 20th century.

He had also a young family with a beautiful wife and a small kid, who 
would certainly occupy a few of the few hours left.

In these few remaining hours he wrote in 1905 alone four ground-breaking 
papers, of which one won him a Nobel prize.

Besides of that he also nwrote twenty reviews for 'Annalen der Physik' 
in the same year.
(I wonder how he had managed to get at least some sleep).

But there a few more problems to overcome:

computers were not invented then, nor xerox copiers.

Therefore, he had to have all books in physical form in his own posession.

This was expensive and also a lot to read.

It was also a lot to write, but without any kind of aid. Usual tools 
were pens (or ocasionally feathers and ink).

Since only nights were left over for free thinking, he had to write his 
masterpieces at the kitchen table, lit by candle light (while his wife 
snores and the kind crys).

....

TH