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 THE GOLDEN AGE
OF
THEORETICAL PHYSICS
Volume 1
 THE GOLDEN AGE
OF
THEORETICAL PHYSICS
Volume 1

Jagdish Mehra

fe World Scientific
III Singapore *New Jersey London • Hong Kong
Published by
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
P O Box 128, Farrer Road, Singapore 912805
USA office: Suite IB, 1060 Main Street, River Edge, NJ 07661
UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS, VOL. 1

Copyright © 2001 by Jagdish Mehra
All rights reserved. This book or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to
be invented, without written permission from the Publisher.

For photocopying of material in this volume, please pay a copying fee through the Copyright Clearance Center,
Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. In this case permission to photocopy is not required from
the publisher.

ISBN 981-02-4984-5
ISBN 981-02-4342-1 (set)

Printed in Singapore by Uto-Print

 To Helmut Rechenberg,

With affection, appreciation, and friendship,

For his loyal and devoted cooperation and sustained collaboration

' Wenn die Konige bauen, haben die Karner zu tun.'' ('When kings go a-building,
wagoners have more work.')
— The Xenien of Schiller and Goethe,
No. 53, entitled ''Kant und seine Ausleger'

He who would do good to another must do it in Minute Particulars

General Good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite, and flatterer;
For Art and Science cannot exist but in minutely organized Particulars.
— William Blake, Jerusalem

I admire to the highest degree the achievement of the younger generation of physi-
cists which goes by the name of quantum mechanics and believe in the deep level
of truth of that theory; but I believe that the restriction to statistical laws will be
a passing one.
— Albert Einstein, in a speech on 28 June 1929 on the
acceptance of the Max Planck Medal. Quoted in
Forschungen und Fortschritte, 1929.
Contents

Volume 1

Foreword xi
A Personal Introduction xiii
1. Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 1
2. Max Planck and the Law of Blackbody Radiation 19
3. Planck's Half-Quanta: A History of the Concept of Zero-Point Energy 56
4. Josiah Willard Gibbs and the Foundations of Statistical Mechanics 94
5. Einstein and the Foundation of Statistical Mechanics 123
6. Albert Einstein and Marian von Smoluchowski: Early History of the
Theory of Fluctuation Phenomena 153
7. The Historical Origins of the Special Theory of Relativity 210
8. The Historical Origins of the General Theory of Relativity 229
9. Albert Einstein and the Origin of Light-Quantum Theory 326
10. Niels Bohr and the Quantum Theory of the Atom 351
11. Arnold Sommerfeld and Atoms as Conditionally Periodic Systems 372
12. The Gottingen Tradition of Mathematics and Physics from Gauss to
Hilbert and Born and Franck 404
13. The Bohr Festival in Gottingen: Bohr's Wolfskehl Lectures and the
Theory of the Periodic System of Elements 459
14. Satyendra Nath Bose, Bose—Einstein Statistics, and the
Quantum Theory of an Ideal Gas 501
15. Louis de Broglie and the Phase Waves Associated with Matter 546
16. Wolfgang Pauli and the Discovery of the Exclusion Principle 571
17. The Discovery of Electron Spin 585
18. The Discovery of the Fermi-Dirac Statistics 612

Volume 2

19. Werner Heisenberg and the Birth of Quantum Mechanics 639

20. 'The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics': P.A.M. Dirac's
Scientific Work from 1924 to 1933 668
21. Erwin Schrodinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. I. Schrodinger's
Scientific Work Before the Creation of Wave Mechanics 706
x Contents

22. Erwin Schrodinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. II. The
Creation of Wave Mechanics 761
23. Erwin Schrodinger and the Rise of Wave Mechanics. III. Early
Response and Applications 803
24. Niels Bohr's Discussions with Albert Einstein, Werner Heisenberg,
and Erwin Schrodinger: The Origins of the Principles of Uncertainty
and Complementarity 872
25. Eugene Paul Wigner: Aspects of His Life, Work, and Personality 912
26. Lev Davidovich Landau: Some Aspects of His Life and Personality 951
27. The Origin of Quantum Field Theory 959
28. The Solvay Conferences of 1927 and 1930 and the Consistency Debate 991
29. Relativistic Electrons and Quantum Fields 1030
30. New Elementary Particles in Nuclear and Cosmic-Ray Physics 1092
31. Between Hope and Despair: Quantum Electrodynamics in the 1930s 1155
32. Universal Nuclear Forces and Yukawa's New Intermediate
Mass Particle (1933-1937) 1188
33. New Fields Describing Elementary Particles, Their Properties
and Interactions 1204
34. Energy Generation in Stars and the Origins of Nuclear Fission 1260
35. The Einstein-Bohr Debate on the Completion of Quantum Mechanics
and Its Description of Reality (1931-1936) 1274
36. The Quantum Principle: Its Interpretation and Epistemology 1319
37. The Dream of Leonardo da Vinci 1387
Foreword

The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics brings together 37 articles, which I gave
as lectures at many universities in the USA, Western Europe, Japan, and India.
The first essay reproduced here, 'Albert Einstein's "First" Paper,' was discovered
by me and brought to light for the first time; the rest of the essays deal with the
quantum and relativity theories, their extensions and applications, and cover the
period essentially from 1900 to 1940, the veritable golden age when the foundations
of most of the fundamental aspects of 20th-century physics were laid. The last
essay, entitled 'The Dream of Leonardo da Vinci,' was presented as my inaugural
lecture as UNESCO - Sir Julian Huxley Distinguished Professor of Physics and the
History of Science in Paris, France, and Trieste, Italy, and deals with the history
of man's changing vision of the universe. A number of these essays were originally
published as reports or articles over many years in journals or edited books of col-
lected articles, while the revised and enlarged versions of others have been published
in The Historical Development of Quantum Theory with Helmut Rechenberg, whose
intense, profound, and decisive collaboration and contribution I gratefully acknowl-
edge, and to whom this work on selected essays is dedicated with affection, high
esteem, and gratitude.

Houston, Texas Jagdish Mehra

14 March 2000

XI
A Personal Introduction

The great conceptual structures of atomic, kinetic and statistical physics, quan-
tum and relativity theories, quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, and
nuclear and elementary particle physics, ushered in the golden age of theoreti-
cal physics in the first several decades of the twentieth century. The profound
creations of physicists like Josiah Willard Gibbs (with James Clerk Maxwell and
Ludwig Boltzmann as his predecessors), Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Max Planck, Al-
bert Einstein, Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Arnold Sommerfeld, Louis de Broglie,
Satyendra Nath Bose, Max Born, Werner Heisenberg, Pascual Jordan, Paul Adrien
Maurice Dirac, Wolfgang Pauli, Erwin Schrodinger, Enrico Fermi, Lev Davidovich
Landau and Peter Kapitza (and their close scientific colleagues), Hermann Weyl,
Eugene Paul Wigner, John von Neumann, Oskar Klein, Hans Bethe, Felix Bloch,
Rudolf Peierls, Carl D. Anderson, P.M.S. Blackett, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Vic-
tor F. Weisskopf, Hideki Yukawa, Sin-itiro Tomonaga, Willis E. Lamb, Jr., Julian
Schwinger, Richard Feynman and Freeman Dyson, and their very able successors
— such as Aage Bohr, Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee, Murray Gell-Mann (and
Yuval Ne'eman), Abdus Salam, Steven Weinberg, Sheldon Glashow, Martinus Velt-
man and Gerard 't Hooft, and Edward Witten — not only defined the golden age
of theoretical physics but became leaders of the continuing revolution in the physics
of the twentieth century.
As a youth, after taking my bachelor's and master's degrees in physics and math-
ematics, and given my great love for literature, philosophy and history, I wanted
to become a writer. I wrote about my wish to do so to my hero, the eminent En-
glish writer Aldous Huxley, and sought his guidance. I told him that although I
felt a great urge to become a writer I had no theme to pursue. He immediately
responded: 'You have the best of themes. You have studied quantum theory, which
is the greatest revolution in human thought. Its creators are most of them still
alive, work with them and learn from them how this great field developed in the
twentieth century and write about it. Go and work with Pauli in Zurich!' Huxley,
at that time, was having a dialogue with Wolfgang Pauli (who, apart from being a
great physicist himself, had written an essay on Johannes Kepler) about the nature
of the archetype of mind and personality that makes great scientific discoveries —
a mixture of intelligence, intuition, inquisitiveness, imagination, as well as logic and
irrationality, and a combination of method and madness — one who — in the words
of the poet John Donne — 'thought with his (or her) blood,' that is, with the whole

XIII
xiv The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

being. Fortunately, just then I received the award of a coveted fellowshop for pur-
suing higher studies and research in any university of Western Europe and — with
Huxley's recommendation — I went to see Pauli in Switzerland. Pauli was very
kind and understanding and, after the preliminaries, asked me what I wanted to
do. With my still unclearly formed ideas, I told him that one day — after learning
enough physics — I wished to write about the historical and conceptual develop-
ment of quantum theory. Pauli said that since I had a fellowship, I could work at
his institute and learn from him, but it would be very hard work; however before
deciding to stay in Zurich, I must go and meet Werner Heisenberg in Gottingen
because, as he said, 'It was, after all, Heisenberg who discovered quantum mechan-
ics.' At the physics institute in Zurich, I made the acquaintance of Otto Stern (who
was visiting Pauli) and Pauli's assistant Robert Schafroth and a new guest, Walter
Thirring, who had just come after a stay in Gottingen; Thirring urged me to stay on
in Zurich, but I followed Pauli's advice. With his introductory note to Heisenberg
about my enthusiasm, I forthwith left by train for Gottingen to meet Heisenberg —
whom I found to be very gentle, kind, cultivated and civilized. After a long conver-
sation about my personal background and interests — about science, poetry and
literature, history, philosophy and art — he also finally posed the question: 'With
your many interests, what is it that you want to do?' I told him, just as I had told
Pauli that one day — after proper training in theoretical physics — I hoped to write
about the development of quantum theory in the twentieth century. Heisenberg en-
couraged me by saying, 'This is a most worthy and worthwhile ambition for a young
man to have, and you should pursue it. But before embarking upon it, you should
work on some actual problems of theoretical physics — quantum mechanics, quan-
tum field theory, and nuclear physics [then the current interests at his Institute],
and I shall be glad to guide you as much as I can when you need help. You'll find
the atmosphere here [the Max Planck-Institut fur Physik and the great intellectual
tradition of the University of Gottingen] very stimulating. You are most welcome to
stay.' I was greatly charmed and captivated by Heisenberg — soft-spoken, gentle,
kind, perceptive, and understanding that he was. He had just celebrated his 52nd
birthday; he was world-famous and a legend, and I was a mere youth, but he was not
condescending. So I stayed on in Gottingen, and for the next almost three years —
with a handsome fellowship — I lived as a gentleman-at-large, working on the prob-
lems that Heisenberg would assign me and going for walks in the woods with him at
the edge of town, where the Institute was situated, after the seminar on quantum
field theory and tea on Thursday afternoons. I would study the original scientific
literature in the journals on the major problems of quantum theory and its appli-
cations, and would ply Heisenberg with questions. Upon my return to my digs at
the Akademische Burse, I would write detailed verbatim notes on our conversation
during the walk in the afternoon, and give him a copy of them on Monday morning
after the seminar on nuclear physics to read and edit them. Every Wednesday I
was invited for lunch at his home, and he and Mrs. Heisenberg would encourage
their children to speak English with me for practice. After lunch we would repair to
 A Personal Introduction xv

Heisenberg's study, discuss my notes, and plan the program for further study and
conversations, which, I would assiduously follow. This remained our program all the
time when Heisenberg was in town, and not traveling on business or on vacation. I
was young and forward, but very polite with a prodigious memory, and Heisenberg
was young enough to remember everything which he and his scientific colleagues
had done, and old enough to wish to talk about it, and in me he found someone
to have engaging dialogues with. In Gottingen I got to know lots of well-known
people, who either lived there or passed through to give lectures and seminars: Carl
Priedrich von Weizsacker was one of the professors at the Institute, and I spent
much time with him in conversations about physics, astrophysics, philosophy, liter-
ature, history, and art; he was truly most erudite, a veritable Renaissance man. He
and Heisenberg gave me introductions to go, meet and have interviews with many
well-known European physicists and philosophers already during my first Spring
vacation: Niels Bohr, Pascual Jordan, Friedrich Hund, Walther Gerlach, Louis de
Broglie, Irene Joliot-Curie and Frederic Joliot, Francis Perrin, Pierre Auger, Leon
Rosenfeld and Lise Meitner, as well as Romano Guardini (the well-known Catholic
philosopher), Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger, and several
others, and I was able to meet and interview many of them on that occasion and
others later on. It was really a grand tour for me and I returned to Gottingen deeply
enriched. Max Born had just retired from the Tait Chair of Natural Philosophy in
Edinburgh, Scotland, and come for a visit to Gottingen; he was looking for a place
to live somewhere close to Gottingen, where he was entitled to a full pension as a
former professor. During that visit he stayed for a little over two weeks in one of the
well-appointed guest-rooms in the Akademische Burse where I had my rooms, and
each morning after breakfast we used to walk to the Institute and talk about his
old times there, going back to David Hilbert, Hermann Minkowski, and Felix Klein.
With Born I would go on walking tours of Gottingen and its environs and see the
old, great and famous city through 'Bom's eyes and memories,' where he had spent
such a wonderful and productive time and built a great school of atomic and quan-
tum theory so many years ago. He told me many stories, and also gave me letters
of introduction for Erwin Schrodinger, James Franck, and Walter Heitler; I would
soon go to Dublin to meet Schrodinger and interview him; also in Dublin, later on,
I would make the acquaintance of John L. Synge and Cornelius Lanczos, and would
meet Franck somewhat later in the USA and again during a visit to Gottingen.
In Gottingen, I had close contact with the venerable Otto Hahn, the discoverer of
nuclear fission; he was then President of the Max Planck Gesellschaft; with Hahn
I used to ride the same bus every evening towards our respective residences which
were in the same direction; he introduced me to Lise Meitner. Among the math-
ematicians, I became close to Theodor Kaluza and Carl Ludwig Siegel, and went
to meet Hermann Weyl, John von Neumann, and Andre Weil at the International
Congress of Mathematicians in Amsterdam. Throughout this period, my program
of study, research, and focused interviews on the development of quantum physics
continued.
xvi The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

From Gottingen, I returned to England, where I became very close to Paul Dirac
and met and had interviews with the British physicists P.M.S. Blackett, Charles
Galton Darwin, H.S.W. Massey, Norman Feather, Phillip Ivor Dee, Nicholas Kem-
mer, C.F. Powell, John Desmond Bernal, Rudolf Peierls, James Chadwick, Dennis
Sciama, and Abdus Salam, both of the latter starting their own distinguished ca-
reers, as well as M.J. Lighthill, who had attended the courses of the mathematician
G.H. Hardy with Freeman Dyson at Cambridge. I had the good fortune to develop
a lifelong contact with Nevill F. Mott, who had been appointed Cavendish Professor
when I first met him; in my first encounter with him, he asked me what I was work-
ing on and I told him, and asked him the same question; with a grin he replied,
'Young man, I have as much time for research as the Archbishop of Canterbury
has to pray!' During the following years, I would meet all the major architects of
quantum theory, other than those who had passed on and laid the foundations of
the field in which I would continue to work: Planck, Einstein (whom I could have
met if I had been able to go to Princeton earlier, as I had tried hard to do, but
he died in April 1955 when I was about to leave Gottingen for London), Ehrenfest,
Sommerfeld, Kramers, and Fermi.
From Great Britain, where I had found a great career opportunity with the
Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (now the Science Research Coun-
cil), I went to America, where I came into close and friendly contacts with David
Saxon, Leonard Schiff, Freeman J. Dyson, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Marvin Gold-
berger, Hans A. Bethe, Eugene P. Wigner, Richard Feynman, Julian Schwinger,
Murray Gell-Mann, Victor F. Weisskopf, Willis E. Lamb, Jr., Polykarp Kusch,
I.I. Rabi, Richard Hofstadter, Felix Bloch, J.H. Van Vleck, George Uhlenbeck,
Samuel Goudsmit, L.H. Thomas, Y. Nambu, George Gamow, Robert Serber,
S. Mandelstam, John Bardeen, Herman Feshbach, Mark Kac, R.H. Dalitz, Gre-
gor Wentzel, S. Chandrasekhar, Edward Teller, Emilio Segre, Robert E. Marshak,
E.C. George Sudarshan, Ilya Prigogine, Charles H. Townes, Robert S. Mulliken,
Chen Ning Yang, Tsung-Dao Lee, and numerous other physicists of note from whom
I learned a great deal about the development of modern physics and the part they
had and were playing in it. In the USA, especially since I lived close to Los Ange-
les, in the proximity of Hollywood Hills, where my old hero Aldous Huxley had his
home, I enjoyed very close and regular contacts with him.
Like Freeman Dyson, whom I greatly admired, I did not wish to pursue work
for a Ph.D., but at the University of California in Los Angeles it became clear to
me that for continued rise in the academic world in America it was absolutely nec-
essary to have the doctorate as the union card; in any case, I had done nothing
so important as Dyson had in his youth when he went to pursue higher studies
with Hans Bethe at Cornell, where very soon he made important discoveries. I
had maintained contacts with Wolfgang Pauli throughout since our first meeting
in Zurich, and had occasionally gone to visit and interview him. In 1958, Pauli
came to Berkeley to give lectures on the CPT theorem and on group theory, and
he was kind enough to ask me if I would come over from Los Angeles and spend
 A Personal Introduction xvii

some time with him, which I immediately accepted to do. We had a wonderful
time together; it was particularly instructive and endearing for me to be in close
company with Pauli. I mentioned to him that I had been thinking about a problem
for my doctoral thesis (on the general theory of London van der Waals forces and
the Casimir effect, with the covariant perturbation-theoretical methods of Feyn-
man and Schwinger), a problem in which Pauli was interested, and I asked him
if I could complete my degree with him; he immediately agreed and approved the
subject and the plan, so I discussed the details of my ideas with him. He thought
it would make a good thesis. After Pauli's sudden death in December of that year
— we met for the last time at the High Energy Physics Conference at Geneva that
year — I sought to wind up my affairs in California, and took a leave of absence
to complete my doctoral thesis in Switzerland, for which I received a prestigious
fellowship from a European foundation. Since I had already done most of the work,
it took me only one year to write it all up and take my degree, after which I
was invited to stay on for another year as a Senior Lecturer; I gave my lectures
in French, a language I had fallen in love with. In Switzerland, I enjoyed close
contacts and friendships with Charles P. Enz, Pauli's last assistant, Markus Fierz,
Pauli's successor at the ETH in Zurich, Res Jost, Josef M. Jauch, B.L. van der
Waerden, Ernst C.G. Stueckelberg, the old mathematician and former Hilbert col-
laborator Paul Bernays, Walter Heitler, and Leon Van Hove; I also paid visits to
Aage Bohr and Ben Mottelson in Copenhagen and to H.B.G. Casimir in Eindhoven,
Holland.
After several years in California, I went on a trip around the world and visited
many countries, including Japan and India. In Japan, I had the great pleasure
of meeting and having interviews with Sin-itiro Tomonaga (whom I had already
met and had conversations with in 1953 during his visit to Gottingen) and Hideki
Yukawa and their collaborators; I would meet Yukawa again at a special conference
on particles and fields, organized by Robert Marshak in Rochester, New York, in
August 1967. In Tokyo I also met R. Kubo and Taro Kihara, experts in statistical
mechanics, for that had been my field of research with the methods of quantum
field theory. In India, I made special trips to pay my respects to C.V. Raman,
Satyendra Nath Bose (whom I had already met earlier in Paris with Homi Jehangir
Bhabha during a visit there from Gottingen), Megh Nad Saha, and D.S. Kothari.
I returned to America after visiting several countries in Europe, especially Switzer-
land, France, Germany, Italy (where I visited Edoardo Amaldi in Rome), Holland
(where I visited Casimir) and England; in each country I paid a call on my old
friends and acquaintances.
During these years my research on problems of theoretical physics (quantum
mechanics, quantum field theory and statistical mechanics) continued, and my col-
lection of interviews, notes of conversations, tapes (and their transcripts) with the
architects of quantum theory, its extensions and applications continued to grow.
I gave many lectures and wrote papers on various aspects of the development of
quantum and relativity theories and statistical physics, and my ideas and plans
xviii The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

to write a major work on the historical and conceptual development of quantum

theory began to take firmer shape.
This brings me to a fateful encounter. In late summer 1969, while I was on an ex-
tended visit to Europe, Heisenberg invited me to stop by in Munich, where a decade
previously he had moved the Max Planck-Institut fur Physik from Gottingen. There
he told me about Helmut Rechenberg, his last doctoral student (who had done a
thesis on problems of quantum field theory), and about Rechenberg's interests in the
cultural, historical and conceptual aspects of modern physics (especially quantum
theory), and suggested that it might be profitable for him to join me for a couple
of years to become interested in my field and goals at The University of Texas at
Austin, where I then was, and do some research in elementary particle physics as
well at the Center for Particle Theory. I liked the idea, especially Heisenberg's
forceful recommendation, and the next day I met with Helmut Rechenberg; we had
a long walk and talk for several hours in the English Garden, which we continued
at dinner in an Italian restaurant in the Schwabing district of Munich. We agreed
that Rechenberg would join us in Austin, Texas, by early Spring 1970, and divide
his time equally in research on elementary particle theory and the historical de-
velopment of quantum theory. In Austin, he became thoroughly familiar with my
archives, which he assisted me in properly organizing, and became very enthusiastic
about my project. With Rechenberg I worked out a detailed outline for a major
work (in several volumes), The Historical Development of Quantum Theory, and
he assisted me in numerous projects on which I was engaged. I was still giving
many invited lectures on the historical development of modern physics in the 20th
century, but several of my friends — among them Josef M. Jauch, Ilya Prigogine,
Leon Rosenfeld and the writer C.P. Snow (who came to Austin at my invitation
to inaugurate the program I had organized at the University on 'The Public Un-
derstanding of Science,' and whom I had known and been friends with ever since
he interviewed me for my first job with the Science Research Council in London)
— insisted that I get on immediately with the writing of my major project, which
I had conceived as a youth; time passes fast, they all said, and there was none to
waste. I wound up my work in Austin, and accepted professorships at the Univer-
sity of Geneva (sponsored by J.M. Jauch) and the International Solvay Institutes in
Brussels (sponsored by Ilya Prigogine); my task would be to do research and writ-
ing on my major work. With the blessings of Heisenberg, who personally requested
the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to make a special research grant to Helmut
Rechenberg, who joined me in Geneva in January 1975, and later on in Brussels, to
collaborate on a consistent major work on the historical development of quantum
theory, which got finally fully completed in six volumes (nine books), with Volume 6
reaching final completion only early in the year 2000. In 1982, the first four volumes
(five books) were published (from Planck, Einstein, Bohr, and Sommerfeld to Born,
Heisenberg, Jordan and Dirac); in 1987 Volume 5 (in two parts) on Schrodinger's
work on wave mechanics appeared. After that we took a respite from this arduous
task and worked on other projects of interest to us individually and separately. In
 A Personal Introduction xix

1994 we resumed the writing of Volume 6 (in two parts), taking the historical de-
velopment of quantum theory and its extensions and applications from Fall 1926 to
Fall 1941, with an Epilogue (1942-1999). Most of the physicists whom I encoun-
tered at various times, many of whom became my close personal friends, as well
as others, have made their appearance in The Historical Development of Quantum
Theory (1900-1999). I must mention the fact that although there was no dearth
of excellent publishers wishing to publish our work, we chose Springer-Verlag New
York, who were particularly enthusiastic and offered us an open-ended contract with
no deadlines; we are grateful to them for their excellent work and cooperation in
producing this major work.
Since April 1970, my friendship, collaboration, and co-authorship with Helmut
Rechenberg has been loyal, continuous, and sustained, and together I believe that
we have accomplished a certain amount. I can truly say that the vision of my
youth, first inspired by Aldous Huxley and encouraged by Pauli, Heisenberg, and
Dirac, of writing a rigorous and detailed account of the historical and conceptual
development of quantum theory and its many extensions and applications, could
not have been achieved without the sustained collaboration and unfailing support of
Helmut Rechenberg — certainly not in the form it ultimately took; this book, The
Golden Age of Theoretical Physics is dedicated to him with my profound esteem
and gratitude for all of his dedicated support to our projects. His work on particle
physics has been a casualty of this enterprise; he has become, in his own right, a
well-known and distinguished historian of physics by his original and collaborative
contributions; his knowledge of the scientific literature and his retentive memory
are phenomenal, and together we have worked most fruitfully.
In this book, The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics, I have brought together 37
selected essays, which had originally been given as lectures at various universities
in the USA, Western Europe, Japan, and India or written as articles, and a number
of them published in their initial form by me; while the final revised and enlarged
versions of a number of them were published with Helmut Rechenberg, and proper
acknowledgment has been made in the footnotes in the beginning of each essay
where his collaboration has been decisive.

Jagdish Mehra
1
Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper*
In 1894 or 1895, the young Albert Einstein wrote an essay on 'The Investigation of the
State of Aether in Magnetic Fields.' He sent the essay, most probably his 'first' scientific
work, with a letter to his uncle Casar Koch. Both items are presented in this article
with some comments on the origins of Einstein's ideas on Special Relativity.

Albert Einstein always maintained that the trend of thinking that ultimately led
to his work 'Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Korper1 ('On the Electrodynamics of
Moving Bodies') 1 had already begun when he was an adolescent young man. In
conversations and interviews at various times, several people sought to find out
from Einstein himself about his intellectual and scientific development in order to
fix the chronology of the conception, gestation and birth of the Special Theory of
Relativity. We know very little about Einstein as a boy and young scholar other
than what he has himself mentioned in scattered writings or told his biographers
and interviewers.
Gerald Holton, in his article 'Influences on Einstein's Early Work in Relativ-
ity Theory,' reported on his search in documents, diaries, notebooks, correspon-
dence, and unpublished manuscripts in the Einstein archives at Princeton and other
source materials for any indications relating to Einstein's 1905 paper on relativity,

During the summer semester in June 1970, I gave a series of lectures at the International Solvay
Institutes of the Universite libre de Bruxelles on the historical development of the quantum and
relativity theories. One of my auditors was a young man, Jean Ferrard, whom Professor Jean
Pelseneer introduced me to as the grandson of Madame Suzanne Koch-Gottschalk, the daughter
of Casar Koch and thus Einstein's cousin. Monsieur Ferrard arranged my meeting with Madame
Suzanne Koch-Gottschalk, during which she told me that she had a box of papers in which there
might be some Einstein documents and if I would help her in sorting them out. I was very excited
by this opportunity, and went through the papers in the box; contained in it were Einstein's
essay, discussed here, and the covering letter to his uncle. I told Madame Suzanne Gottschalk
about the importance of these documents, and asked her permission to publish them, which she
readily granted. I wrote this article and made copies of the Einstein documents I had found in
the Gottschalk family box and personally gave them to Miss Helen Dukas in Princeton in May
1970; she and O t t o Nathan, executor of the Einstein Estate, gave me permission t o publish my
article. After completing this essay, I sent a preprint of it to Freeman Dyson (as I did of all my
papers for his comments); he replied to me at once, and said among other things: 'This paper
is like the discovery of Linear B by Michael Ventris, and shows how humble are the origins of
modern science. It is an important find; publish it immediately! Freeman.' It was published in
Physikalische Blatter 27, 385 (1971) and as Report No. CPT-82; AEC-31, January 8, 1971, of the
Center for Particle Theory, The University of Texas at Austin. I have included this essay in this
volume because of its historical interest.

1
2 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

/
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/ / •> k:.*:,;./'. ,.. ..

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. ' , H » .• i . , : •• • / • • * » ' • " -
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The introduction t o Einstein's essay on 'The Investigation of the State of Aether in Magnetic
Fields,' which he wrote at the age of 15 or 16 and sent to his uncle Casar Koch with a covering
letter.

concluding that 'there is no contemporaneous draft or manuscript from which one

might learn something of the genesis of the paper.' 2 Holton surveyed various books
and authors that probably might have influenced the young Einstein ever since he
came to the Aargau Cantonal School in Aarau in 1895, 3 and looked for some re-
marks or evidence that might have started Einstein's thinking on relativity. In these
and the two notebooks of lecture notes which Einstein kept at Zurich during the
period 1897 to 1900, Holton drew a blank. After a thorough and intensive search
Holton decided that August Foppl's successful book 'Einfiihrung in die Maxwellsche
Theorie der ElektrizitaV ('Introduction to Maxwell's Theory of Electricity'), first
published in 1894, 4 had a decisive influence on Einstein, that Foppl was the 'almost
forgotten teacher.' Foppl, as Holton noted, was called in 1894 to the Technische
Hochschule at Munich, where the young Einstein was then living. The suggestion is
enticing that Einstein became familiar with Foppl's book shortly after it was pub-
lished, learned from it the fundamentals of the electromagnetic theory of Maxwell
and Hertz, was influenced by it in his formative years, and was probably inspired
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 3

by it to work on the theory of relativity. The headings like 'The Electrodynamics of

Moving Conductors,' 'Electromagnetic Force Induced by Movement,' and 'Relative
and Absolute Motion in Space' which occur in Foppl's book are indeed suggestive
of an influence on Einstein. We should, however, remember that these topics were
frequent enough in the scientific literature of the 1890's and the early 1900's, as
the electrodynamics of moving bodies was one of the central problems of physics.
Notation is often indicative of influence, and Einstein used Hertz' notation in his
1905 paper on relativity, not the Heaviside notation used by Foppl, indicating that
Hertz' direct influence on Einstein might have been greater than it is generally
assumed. 4a
I have recently found a 'paper' (an essay) which the young Albert Einstein
wrote in 1894 or 1895.5 He sent the essay entitled 'Uber die Untersuchung des
Aetherzustandes im magnetischen Felde' ('Concerning the Investigation of the State
of Aether in Magnetic Fields') with a covering letter to his maternal uncle, Casar
Koch, who was living in Antwerp, Belgium, at that time. 6 *
The letter to Casar Koch and the essay were assigned the date of '1894 or 1895'
by Einstein himself in 1950.7 It is quite evident from the letter that he wrote the
essay (during the year he spent in Milan) before he went to Zurich for the entrance
examination of the 'Polytechnic' [E.T.H., Eidgenossiche Technische Hochschule,
Zurich — the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology].8 The essay therefore pre-
dates all source materials to which references have been made in connection with
the origins of the theory of relativity. Before presenting Einstein's letter and essay,
let us review some of the autobiographical and interview comments which are on
record; all of them dwell upon Einstein's recollection of the vague beginnings of the
'relativity problem' going back to his Aarau days.
Thus the psychologist Max Wertheimer recalled 'those wonderful days,' begin-
ning in 1916, when he questioned Einstein for hours on end alone in his study, and
heard from him the story of the 'dramatic developments which culminated in the
theory of relativity.' Wertheimer probed Einstein for the 'concrete events in his
thought,' and Einstein described to him the genesis of each equation in great and
specific detail. 9
By the time the conversations with Max Wertheimer took place, Einstein had
already completed the main edifice of his theory of gravitation and the general
theory of relativity, 10 and he could take a long look back and reminisce about a
glorious intellectual adventure. As Wertheimer recalls, 'The problem started when
Einstein was sixteen years old, a pupil in the Gymnasium (Aarau, Kantonschule).
He was not an especially good student, unless he did productive work on his own
account. This he did in physics and mathematics, and consequently he knew more
about those subjects than his classmates. It was then that the great problem really
started to trouble him. He was intensely concerned with it for seven years; from the

*I presented photocopies of these documents to Miss Helen Dukas in May 1970 for the Einstein
Archives in Princeton. I am grateful to Miss Dukas and the Executor of the Estate of Albert
Einstein, Dr. Otto Nathan, for permission to publish these items.
4 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

moment however that he came to question the customary concept of time, it took
him only five weeks to write his paper on relativity 'n
On 4 February 1950, in the first of several visits that he made to Einstein in
Princeton during the period 1950-1954, R.S. Shankland asked Einstein how long
he had worked on the Special Theory of Relativity before 1905. Einstein told him
that he had started on the problem at the age of 16, already as a student when he
could devote only part of his time to it, and worked on it for ten years. He made
many fruitless attempts to develop a theory consistent with the experimental facts,
but they had to be abandoned, 'until it came to me that time was suspect!' 12
Einstein, in his conversation with Shankland, commented at length on the nature
of mental processes, and emphasized that our minds do not seem to move step by
step to the solution of a problem; rather, they take a devious route. 'It is only
at the last that order seems at all possible in a problem,' said Eintein. 13 Of a
later interview on 24 October 1952, Shankland reports, 'I asked Professor Einstein
about the three famous 1905 papers [Annalen der Physik, 17, 132, 549, 891 (1905)]
and how they all appeared to come at once. He told me that the work on special
relativity "had been his life for over seven years and that this was the main thing."
However, he quickly added that the photoelectric effect paper was also the result
of five years pondering and attempts to explain Planck's quantum in more specific
terms. He gave me the distinct impression that the work on Brownian motion was
a much easier job. "A simple way to explain this came to me, and I sent it off." ' 1 4
So again it was relativity, the problem of the electrodynamics of moving bodies,
that went farthest back in his memory. Not only did Einstein have curiosity about
the workings of nature, he had also acquired some knowledge of the essentials of
physics and mathematics quite early in school. His remarks indicate that, even as
a boy of sixteen, he had recognized the intellectual challenge of some fundamental
problems of physics. 15
Excitement about natural phenomena had come to Einstein early. At the age of
4 or 5, he had received a compass from his father to play with. The sense of wonder,
of a 'secret power behind the movement of the needle,' which he experienced as a
child remained a deep and lasting memory with him. 16 The various business crises of
his father, which affected the fortunes of the family, did not destroy the atmosphere
of free thought, experience, and sense of mystery about nature in which Einstein
grew up. In 1889, at the age of 10 Albert Einstein entered the Luitpold Gymnasium
in Munich. His work at the Gymnasium was a mechanical routine; but still, at the
age of 12, he experienced the excitement and beauty of geometry when he came
across an old textbook on Euclidean plane geometry at the school.
Of his boyhood studies, Einstein recalled in his autobiographical notes: 'At
the age of 12-16 I familiarized myself with the elements of mathematics together
with the principles of differential and integral calculus. In doing so I had the good
fortune of hitting up books which were not too particular in their logical rigour, but
which made up for this by permitting the main thoughts to stand out clearly and
synoptically. This occupation was, on the whole, truly fascinating; climaxes were
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 5

reached whose impression could easily compete with that of elementary geometry —
the basic idea of analytical geometry, the infinite series, the concepts of differential
and integral. I also had the good fortune to know the essential results and methods
of the entire field of the natural sciences in an excellent popular exposition, which
limited itself almost throughout to qualitative aspets ([Aaron] Bernstein's People's
Books on Natural Science, a work of 5 or 6 volumes), a work which I read with
breathless attention. I had also already studied some theoretical physics when,
at the age of 17, I entered the Polytechnic Institute of Zurich as a student of
mathematics and physics.' 17 Einstein also recalled that 'at the age of 13 I read with
enthusiasm Ludwig Biichner's Force and Matter, a book which I later found to be
rather childish in its ingenuous realism.' 18
On account of business difficulties his father left Munich in 1894 for Milan, but
Einstein stayed on in a pension to complete his studies at school. He found the
mechanical routine of his academic life at the Gymnasium intolerable, and a few
months later he joined his parents in Milan. He had left the unpleasant rigors and
discipline of the German gymnasium, but had also left the school in Munich without
a diploma. Einstein was fifteen years old.
Einstein spent a year with his parents in Milan, and during this time thought
about pursuing higher education in theoretical physics. Having no diploma from
the Gymnasium, he thought of gaining admission to the Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology in Zurich by taking the entrance examination. Later on, he recalled:
'As a sixteen-year-old I came to Zurich from Italy in 1895, after I had spent one
year without school and teachers in Milan with my parents. My aim was to gain ad-
mission to the Polytechnic, but it was not clear to me how I should attain this, I was
a self-willed but modest young man, who had obtained his fragmentary knowledge
of the relevant fundamentals [mainly] by self-study. Avid for deeper understand-
ing, but not very gifted in being receptive, studies did not appear to me to be an
easy task. I appeared for the entrance examination of the engineering department
with a deep-seated feeling of insecurity. Even though the examiners were patient
and understanding, the examination painfully revealed to me the gaps in my earlier
training. I thought it was only right that I failed. It was a comfort, however, that
the physicist H.F. Weber informed me that I could attend his lectures if I stayed
in Zurich. The director, Professor Albin Herzog, however, recommended me to the
Cantonal School in Aarau, from where after one year's study I was graduated. On
account of its liberal spirit and genuine sincerity, and teachers who did not lean
on external authority of any kind, this school has left on me an unforgettable im-
pression. Compared to the six years of schooling in an authoritatively run German
gymnasium I became intensely aware of how much education leading to independent
activity and individual responsibility is to be preferred to the education which relies
on drill, external authority, and ambition. Real democracy is not an empty illusion.
'During this year in Aarau came to me the question: If one follows a light beam
with the speed of light, then one would obtain a time-indepedent wave field. However,
such a thing does not exist! This was the first childish thought-experiment which had
6 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

something to do with the Special Theory of Relativity. Invention is not the result
of logical thinking, even though the final result has to be formulated in a logical
manner.' 19 (My italics.)
Einstein tried to imagine what he would observe if he were to travel through
space with the same velocity as a beam of light. According to the usual idea
of relative motion, it would seem that the beam of light would then appear as a
spatially oscillating static electromagnetic field. But such a concept was unknown to
physics and at variance with Maxwell's theory. Einstein began to suspect that the
laws of physics, including those concerning the propagation of light, must remain
the same for all observers however fast they move relative to one another. 20
When Wertheimer asked Einstein if already at that time he had some idea of
the invariance of the velocity of light for all observers in uniform motion, Einstein
replied, 'No, it was just a curiosity. That the velocity of light could differ depending
on the movement of the observer was somehow characterized by doubt. Later
developments increased that doubt.' 21
Says Wertheimer: 'Light did not seem to answer when one put such questions.
Also light, just as mechanical processes, seemed to know nothing of a state of
absolute movement or of absolute rest. This was interesting, exciting.
'Light was to Einstein something very fundamental. At the time of his studies
at the Gymnasium [Aarau], the aether was no longer being thought of as something
mechanical, but as "the mere carrier of electrical phenomena." '
Einstein's essay on the state of the aether in magnetic fields, presented in the
following, refers to his familiarity with the experiments, and deals rather vaguely
with the connection between the aether and electromagnetic phenomena. In his
essay, presented here, Einstein proposed a method for detecting elastic deformations
of the aether by sending light rays into the vicinity of the current-carrying wire.
In his essay, Einstein raised the following main questions: (i) How does a magnetic
field, which is generated when a current is turned on, affect the surrounding aether?
(ii) How does this magnetic field, in turn, affect the current itself? Einstein believed
in the existence of an aether at that time, and regarded it as an elastic medium; he
wondered in particular how 'the three components of elasticity act on the velocity
of the aether wave' which is generated when the currrent is turned on. His main
conclusion was that 'Above all, it ought to be [experimentally] shown that there
exists a passive resistance to the electric current's ability for generating a magnetic
field; [this resistance] is proportional to the length of the wire and independent
of the cross section and the material of the conductor.' Thus the young Einstein
independently discovered the qualitative properties of self-induction, and it seems
clear that Einstein was not yet familiar with the earlier work on this phenomenon,
though at that time he knew that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon but was
not yet familiar with Maxwell's theory. 213
The problems he thought about at Aarau clearly occurred to him after writing
this essay. It is quite possible that sometime during his stay in Munich, Milan,
Aarau or Zurich (that is, during the period 1894-1900), or even perhaps in Berne
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 7

during 1900-1905, Foppl's book 4 (to which Holton 2 attaches great importance as
a possible influence on Einstein's early work on relativity theory) fell into Ein-
stein's hands. It is important to emphasize, however, that Einstein does mention
'the wonderful experiments of Hertz' in his essay, and he continued to mention
Hertz among his 'unforgotten' teachers like Helmholtz, Maxwell, Boltzmann, and
Lorentz. 22 Whatever the real influences might have been on the genesis of Einstein's
1905 paper, 23 the following bits of "Einsteiniana' are the earliest available record of
Einstein's intellectual adventure from his own hand, and they have therefore some
historical interest.
8 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

Letter t o Casar Koch*

1894 or 1895. A. Einstein. (Date recalled in 1950.)

My dear Uncle:

I am really very happy that you are still interested in the little things I am doing
and working on, even though we could not see each other for a long time and I am
such a terribly lazy correspondent. I always hesitated to send you this [attached]
note; because it deals with a very special topic, and besides it is still rather naive
and imperfect, as is to be expected from a young fellow like myself. I shall not be
offended at all if you don't read the stuff; but you must recognize it at least as a
modest atttempt to overcome the laziness in writing which I have inherited from
both of my dear parents
As you probably already know, I am now expected to go to the Polytechnic in
Zurich. However, it presents serious difficulties because I ought to be at least two
years older for that. We shall write to you in the next letter what happens in this
matter.
Warm greetings to dear aunt and your lovely children,

from your
Albert

'Einstein's maternal uncle; sometimes in letters and addresses the name has been spelled with the
French accent as 'Cesar.' (My translation of the letter.)
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 9

Concerning the Investigation of the State of Aether

in Magnetic Fields*
The following lines are the first modest expression of some simple thoughts on this
difficult subject. With much hesitation I am compressing them into an essay which
looks more like a program than a paper. Since I completely lacked the materials
to penetrate the subject more deeply than was permitted by reflection alone, I ask
that this circumstance should not be ascribed to me as superficiality. I hope the
indulgence of the interested reader will correspond to the humble feelings with which
I offer him these lines.
When the electric current comes into being, it immediately sets the surrounding
aether in some kind of instantaneous motion, the nature of which has still not been
exactly determined. In spite of the continuation of the cause of this motion, namely
the electric current, the motion ceases, but the aether remains in a potential state
and produces a magnetic field. That the magnetic field is a potential state [of the
aether] is shown by the [existence of a] permanent magnet, since the principle of
conservation of energy excludes the possibility of a state of motion in this case.
The motion of the aether, which is caused by an electric current, will continue until
the acting [electro-] motive forces are compensated by the equivalent passive forces
which arise from the deformation caused by the motion of the aether itself.
The marvellous experiments of Hertz have most ingeniously illuminated the
dynamic nature of these phenomena — the propagation in space, as well as the
qualitative identity of these motions with light and heat. I believe that for the
understanding of electromagnetic phenomena it is important also to undertake a
comprehensive experimental investigation of the potential states of the aether in
magnetic fields of all kinds — or, in other words, to measure the elastic deformations
and the acting deforming forces.
Every elastic change of the aether at any (free) point in a given direction should
be determinable from the change which the velocity of an aether wave undergoes
at this point in that direction. The velocity of a wave is proportional to the square
root of the elastic forces which cause [its] propagation, and inversely proportional to
the mass of the aether moved by these forces. However, since the changes of density
caused by the elastic deformations are generally insignificant, they may probably
be neglected in this case also. It could therefore be said with good approximation:
The square root of the ratio of the change of velocity of propagation (wavelength)
is equal to the ratio of the change of the elastic force.
I dare not decide as to which type of aether waves, whether light or electro-
dynamic, and which method of measuring the wavelength is most appropriate for
studying the magnetic field; in principle, after all, this makes no difference.
If a change of wavelength in the magnetic field can be detected at all in any given
direction, then the question can be experimentally decided whether only the com-
ponent of the elastic state in the direction of the propagation of the wave influences
*My translation of Einstein's essay.
10 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

the velocity of propagation, or the components perpendicular to it also do; since

it is known a priori that in a uniform magnetic field, whether it is cylindrical or
pyramidal in form, the elastic states at a point perpendicular to the direction of the
lines of force are completely homogeneous, but different in the direction of the lines
of force. Therefore if one lets waves propagate that are polarized perpendicularly
to the direction of the lines of force, then the direction of the plane of oscillation
would be important for the velocity of propagation — that is if the component of
the elastic force perpendicular to the propagation of a wave at all influences the
velocity of propagation. However, this probably might not be the case, although
the phenomenon of double diffraction seems to indicate this.
Thus after the question has been answered as to how the three components of
elasticity affect the velocity of an aether wave, one can proceed to the study of the
magnetic field. In order to understand properly the state of the aether in it [the
magnetic field], three cases ought to be distinguished:

1. The lines of force come together at the North pole in the shape of a pyramid.
2. The lines of force come together at the South pole in the shape of a pyramid.
3. The lines of force are parallel.

In these cases the velocity of propagation of a wave in the direction of the lines of
force and perpendicular to them has to be examined. There is no doubt that the
elastic deformations as well as the cause of their origin will be determined [by these
experiments], provided sufficiently accurate instruments to measure the wavelength
can be constructed.
The most interesting, but also the most difficult, task would be the direct exper-
imental study of the magnetic field which arises around an electric current, because
the investigation of the elastic state of the aether in this case would allow us to
obtain a glimpse of the mysterious nature of the electric current. This analogy also
permits us to draw definite conclusions concerning the state of the aether in the
magnetic field which surrounds the electric current, provided of course the experi-
ments mentioned above yield any result.
I believe that the quantitative researches on the absolute magnitudes of the
density and the elastic force of the aether can only begin if qualitative results exist
that are connected with established ideas. Let me add one more thing. If the
wavelength does not turn out to be proportional to ^A + k [sic], then the reason
(for that) has to be looked for in the change of density of the moving aether caused by
the elastic deformations; here A is the elastic aether force, a priori a constant which
we have to determine empirically, and k the (variable) strength of the magnetic field
which, of course, is proportional to the elastic forces in question that are produced.
Above all it must be demonstrated that there exists a passive resistance to the
electric current for the production of the magnetic field, that is proportional to
the length of the path of the current and independent of the cross section and the
material of the conductor.
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 11

N o t e s and References
1. A. Einstein, Annalen der Physik, Ser. 4, 17, pp. 891-921, 1905.
2. Gerald Holton, 'Influences of Einstein's Early Work in Relativity Theory,' The Amer-
ican Scholar, 37, No. 1, pp. 59-79, Winter, 1967-68.
3. Albert Einstein was a pupil in the third and fourth classes of the Aargau Cantonal
School in Aarau from October 1895 to early fall of 1896. In October 1896 Einstein
enrolled at the E.T.H., Zurich, to study for a Fachlehrer (specialist teacher) diploma
in mathematical physics, and was graduated in August 1900. (See Carl Seelig, Albert
Einstein, Staples Press, London, 1956.) In his article (ibid., p. 63) Holton remarks:
'As Besso wrote (in his notes of August 1946 for Strickelberg's article on Einstein in
Switzerland), Einstein came to the Aarau Kanton-School in 1896 ' There is a slight
confusion of dates in this. Both Seelig and Einstein are correct about the dates.
4. August Foppl, Einfuhrung in die Maxwellsche Theorie der Elektrizitdt, Druck und
Verlag von B.G. Teubner, 1894.
4a. Heinrich Hertz' Untersuchungen iiber die Elektrischen Kraft was published in 1892; the
first English edition of his Electric Waves was published in 1894 (McMillan and Co.
Ltd.). Hertz died in 1894. Paul Drude's book Physik des Aethers was also published
in 1894 (Verlag von Ferdinand Enke, Stuttgart, 1894).
Einstein's essay, presented in this article, clearly indicates that his interest in elec-
tromagnetism was aroused by the 'marvellous' experiments of Heinrich Hertz. These
experiments, since Faraday's early work, were the most important in the field of elec-
tromagnetism and were justly so celebrated at the time. Faraday had discovered the
law of electromagnetic induction in 1834, and it was this law that guided Einstein
in his work on Special Relativity. Einstein built his theory on experimental facts. He
starts his 1905 paper by pointing out that the law of induction contains an asymmetry
which is artificial, and does not correspond to facts. Empirical observation shows that
the current induced depends only on the relative motion of the conducting wire and
the magnet, while the usual theory explains the effect in quite different terms accord-
ing to whether the wire is at rest and the magnet moving or vice versa. At the time
of Einstein's writing the law of induction was about 70 years old, and 'everybody had
known all along that the effect depended on relative motion, but nobody had taken
offence at the theory not accounting for this circumstance.' (See Max Born, Physics
and Relativity, in Physics in My Generation, Springer Verlag New York, 1969.)
5. I am grateful to Madame Suzanne Koch-Gottschalk and Jean Ferrard for allowing
me to examine the letters and papers relating to Einstein in the possession of their
family. Madame Gottschalk has very kindly allowed me to publish the translation of
Einstein's essay and to report on my findings for scientific purposes.
6. Casar and Jakob Koch were the two brothers of Einstein's mother Pauline. Jakob lived
in Zurich and his name occurs several times in the Einstein-Besso correspondence.
Casar Koch seems to have been Einstein's favorite relative. In one of the letters to
Casar, Einstein remarks: ' . . . . Bist Du mir doch immer der Liebste in der Familie
gewesen.' After his marriage to Mathilde Levy at Basle in 1888, Casar went to Buenos
Aires; following a sojourn there and return to Basle, he settled in Antwerp, Belgium,
around 1891, and moved to Brussels after the First World War. He was a merchant of
commodities. Casar Koch was very fond of Albert Einstein and encouraged him in his
boyhood studies. Einstein visited the Koch family when he attended the first Solvay
conference in Brussels in 1911. In the 1920's when Einstein used to visit Ehrenfest in
Leiden and gave lectures there, or en route to Paris from Berlin, he always visited his
uncle Casar. These personal contacts were continued when Einstein attended the fifth
and sixth Solvay conferences in Brussels, in 1927 and 1930 respectively, and during
12 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

the months he spent as a refugee from Germany at Le Coq sur Mer near Ostende
before his final departure from Europe to the United States. Later on, affectionate
correspondence between Einstein, his wife Elsa, his sister Maja, and the Koch family
was maintained.
I am grateful to Madame Suzanne Gottschalk, daughter of Casar Koch, for con-
versations about Einstein and her family, and for showing me numerous letters and
photographs.
7. I have not been able to discover the identity of the person who showed Einstein
these documents in 1950. Neither the owners of the documents nor Miss Helen Dukas,
Einstein's former secretary, have any recollection of who this person was, nor could
they offer any reasonable guess about his identity.
8. The choice of the E.T.H. in Zurich for Einstein's higher studies was made by his father
Hermann and uncle Jakob Einstein. The two brothers at one time had founded a small
engineering factory for making dynamos, measuring instruments and arc lamps, and
Einstein's initial plan was to study engineering in Zurich.
9. Max Wertheimer, Productive Thinking, edited by Michael Wertheimer, Enlarged Edi-
tion 1959, Harper &c Row Publishers, New York and Evanston, p. 213.
10. In 1905 Einstein continued the theme of his relativity paper by discussing the de-
pendence of the inertia of a body on its energy (Anncden der Physik, ser. 4, vol. 18,
pp. 639-641). In 1907 Einstein wrote on the possibility of a new test of the prin-
ciple of relativity (Annalen der Physik, ser. 4, vol. 23, pp. 197-198), the inertia of
energy as a consequence of the relativity principle (Annalen der Physik, ser. 4, vol. 23,
pp. 371-384), and 'Relativitatsprinzip und die aus demselben gezogenen Folgerungen'
(Jahrbuch der Radioaktivitat, vol. 4, pp. 411-462, and vol. 5, pp. 98-99). In the last
paper he explicitly stated the equivalence of inertial and gravitational mass, and gave
the famous equation for mass in terms of energy. Einstein returned to the ideas of this
paper in 1911 when he wrote on the influence of gravity on light (Annalen der Physik,
ser. 4, vol. 35, pp. 898-908). The theme of relativity and gravitation was taken up in
1912, with papers on the velocity of light in a gravitational field (Annalen der Physik,
ser. 4, vol. 38, pp. 355-369), the theory of a static gravitational field (Annalen der
Physik, ser. 4, vol. 38, pp. 443-458), and replies to remarks of M. Abraham in short
notes (Annalen der Physik, ser. 4, vol. 8, pp. 1059-1064; vol. 39, p. 704). A major sum-
ming up of the ideas expressed in these papers and approaches to the general theory
of relativity and gravitation were made with Marcel Grossmann in 'Entwurf einer Ve-
rallgemeinerten Relativitdtstheorie und eine Theorie der Gravitation' (Zeitschrift fur
Mathematik and Physik, vol. 62, pp. 225-261). Einstein presented a lecture on the phys-
ical foundations of the new theory of gravitation in an address to the Naturforschende
Gesellschaft, Zurich, 9 September 1913 (Vierteljahrsschrift, vol. 58, pp. 284-290), and
continued the theme two weeks later in a lecture at the 85th Versammlung Deutscher
Naturforscher in Vienna on 21 September 1913. In 1914, Einstein wrote on the formal
foundations of general relativity theory (Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie
der Wissenschaften, part 2, pp. 1030-1085, 1914), gave several lectures on the problem
of gravitation and relativity, and published a paper with M. Grossmann on the general
convariance properties of the field equations of the theory of gravitation (Zeitschrift
fur Mathematik und Physik, vol. 63, pp. 215-225). Einstein continued to write on gen-
eral relativity during the year 1915, and published new ideas on the application of the
theory of astronomy; he also explained the perihelion motion of mercury on the basis
of the general theory. Then in 1916 his great paper on the complete general theory
of relativity was published: ' Grundlage der allgemeinen Relativitats-theorie' (Annalen
der Physik, ser. 4, vol. 49, pp. 769-822). In an important sense this was the culmination
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 13

of the intellectual adventure on which Einstein had started since the time he wrote to
his uncle Casar Koch in 1894 or 1895.
11. Max Wertheimer, ibid., p. 214.
12. R.S. Shankland, 'Conversations with Albert Einstein,' American Journal of Physics,
vol. 31, pp. 47-57, 1963, p. 48.
13. R.S. Shankland, ibid., p. 48.
14. R.S. Shankland, ibid., p. 56.
15. Apart from questions concerning light and the electrodynamics of moving bodies, Ein-
stein went to Aarau 'with the [then much debated] questions concerning the palpability
[GreifbarkeiQ of ether and of atoms' in mind. (For the quotation from Besso in this
remark, see Holton, ibid., p. 63.)
16. Autobiographical notes by Albert Einstein in Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist,
edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp (originally in Library of Living Philosophers, 1949),
Harper Torchbooks Science Library, New York, 1959, p. 9.
17. Autobiographical notes by Albert Einstein, ibid., p. 15.
18. Carl Seelig, Albert Einstein, Staples Press, London, 1956, p. 12.
19. Albert Einstein, Autobiographische Skizze; perhaps one of the last writings of Ein-
stein (written in March 1955), was published in Fall 1955 in ' Schweizerische Hoch-
schulzeitung,' Festnummer 1855-1955, on the occasion of the centennial jubilee of the
E.T.H. in Zurich. In this autobiographical sketch, Einstein recalled some touching
memories of his life in Switzerland. This sketch was included in Helle Zeit — Dun-
kle Zeit, In Memoriam Albert Einstein, edited by Carl Seelig, Europa Verlag, Zurich,
1956, pp. 9-17. See pp. 9-10 for the quotation.
20. Einstein: The Man and His Achievement, a series of broadcasts on the BBC Third
Programme, edited by G.J. Whitrow, BBC, London, 1967.
21. Max Wertheimer, ibid., p. 215.
21a. A. Pais, Subtle is the Lord, Oxford University Press, 1982, p. 131.
22. Louis Kollross, 'Albert Einstein en Suisse—Souvenirs,' in 'Funfzig Jahre Relativ-
itatstheorie' (Bern, 11-16 July 1955), Helvetica Physica Acta, Supplementum IV, 1956,
see pp. 274-275; also published as 'Erinnerungen eines Kommilitonen' in 'Helle Zeit
— Dunkle Zeit,' ibid., see p. 22.
23. In an undated letter, probably sometime after 6 March 1905, Einstein wrote to his
friend Conrad Habicht in Schiers; 'But why have you not yet sent me your thesis? Don't
you know, you wretch, that I should be one of the few fellows who would read it with
interest and pleasure? I can promise you in return four works, the first of which I shall
soon be able to send you as I am getting some free copies. It deals with the radiation
and energy characteristics of light and is very revolutionary, as you will see if you send
me your work in advance. The second study is a determination of the true atomic
dimensions from the diffusion and inner friction of diluted liquid solutions of neutral
matter. The third proves that on the premise of the molecular theory of induction,
particles of the size 1/1000 mm., when suspended in liquid, must execute a perceptible
irregular movement which is generated by the movement of heat. Movements of small,
lifeless, suspended particles have in fact been examined by physiologists and these
movements have been called by them "the Brownian movement." The fourth study is
still a mere concept: the electrodynamics of moving bodies by the use of a modification
of the theory of space and time. The purely cinematic part of this work will undoubtedly
interest you.' (My italics.)
The fourth study, to which Einstein refers, was his paper on the Special Theory
of Relativity. It was completed in Berne in June 1905, and received by the editor of
Annalen der Physik on 30 June 1905. It is indeed quite remarkable that even at this late
14 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

date (sometime after 6 March 1905), Einstein refers to his study as 'still a mere con-
cept.' This concept, however, had now been growing within him for almost ten years.
On March 11, 1952, Albert Einstein wrote to Carl Seelig: 'Between the conception
of the idea of this special relativity theory and the completion of the corresponding
publication, there elapsed five or six weeks. But [he added rather cryptically] it would
be hardly correct to consider this as a birthdate, because earlier the arguments and
building blocks were being prepared over a period of years, although without bringing
about the fundamental decision.' (See Ref. 2, p. 60.) Michele Besso, Einstein's friend
and colleague at the Patent Office in Berne, was party to the 'fundamental decision,'
the final progress of Einstein's conception, and its publication. In concluding his pa-
per, Einstein wrote, 'I wish to say that in working at the problem dealt with here, I
have had the loyal assistance of my friend and colleague M. Besso, and I am indebted
to him for several valuable suggestions.'
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 15

1894 oder 95. A. Einstein. (Datum 1950 nachgeholt.)

Mein lieber Onkel!

Es freut mich wirklich sehr, dass Du Dich fiir mein bischen Thun und Treiben noch
interessierst, trotzdem wir uns so lange nicht sehen durften und ich so grasslich
fauler Briefschreiber bin. Und doch zogerte ich immer, Dir dieses Schreiben hier zu
schicken. Denn es behandelt ein ein [sic] sehr speziales Thema, und ist ausserdem,
wie es sich fur so einen jungen Kerl wie mich von selbst versteht, noch ziemlich
naiv und unvollkommen. Wenn Du das Zeug gar nicht liest, nehme ich Dirs dur-
chaus nicht iibel; Du musst es aber doch zum mindesten als einen schiichternen
Versuch anerkennen, die von meinen beiden lieben Eltern geerbte Schreibfaulheit
zu bekamfen
Wie Du schon wissen wirst soil ich jetzt auf das Polytechnikum nach Zurich kom-
men. Die Sache stosst aber auf bedeutende Schwierigkeiten, da ich dazu eigentlich
zwei Jahre mindestens alter sein sollte. Im nachsten Brief schreiben wir Dir, was
aus der Sache wird.
Innige Griisse der lieben Tante und Deinen herzigen Kinderchen

von Deinem
Albert
16 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

Uber die Untersuchung des Aetherzustandes im magnetischen Felde

Nachfolgende Zeilen sind der erste bescheidene Ausdruck einiger einfacher Gedanken
liber dies schwierige Thema. Mit schwerem Herzen drange ich dieselben in einen
Aufsatz zusammen, der eher wie ein Programm als wie eine Abhandlung aussieht.
Weil es mir aber vollstandig an Material fehlte, um tiefer in die Sache eindringen zu
konnen, als es das blosse Nachdenken gestattete, so bitte ich, mir diesen Umstand
nicht als Oberflachlichkeit auszulegen. Moge die Nachsicht des geneigten Lesers den
bescheidnen Gefiihlen entsprechen, mit denen ich ihm diese Zeilen iibergebe.
Der elektrische Strom setzt bei seinem Entstehen den umliegenden Ather in
irgend eine, bisher ihrem Wesen nach noch nicht sicher bestimmte, momentane Be-
wegung. Trotz Fortdauer der Ursache dieser Bewegung, namlich des elektrischen
Stroms, hort die Bewegung auf, der Ather verbleibt in einem potentiellen Zustande
und bildet ein magnetisches Feld. Dass das magnetische Feld ein potentieller Zu-
stand sei, beweisst der permanente Magnet, da das Gesetz von der Erhaltung der
Energie hier die Moglichkeit eines Bewegungszustandes ausschliesst. Die Bewe-
gung des Athers, welche durch einen elektrischen Strom bewirkt wird, wird so lange
dauern, bis die wirkenden motorischen Krafte durch aquivalente passive Krafte kom-
pensiert werden, welche von der durch die Bewegung des Athers selbst erzeugten
Deformationen herriihren.
Die wunderbaren Versuche von Hertz haben die dynamische Natur dieser Er-
scheinungen, die Fortpflanzung im Raume, sowie die qualitative Identitat dieser
Bewegungen mit Licht und Warme aufs genialste beleuchtet. Ich glaube nun,
dass es fur die Erkenntnis der elektromagnetischen Erscheinungen von Wichtigkeit
ware, auch die potentiellen Zustande des Athers in magnetischen Feldern aller Art
einer umfassenden experimentellen Betrachtung zu unterziehen, oder mit anderen
Worten, die elastischen Deformationen und die wirkenden deformierenden Krafte
zu messen.
Jede elastische Veranderung des Athers an irgend einem (freien) Punkte in einer
Richtung muss sich konstatieren lassen aus der Veranderung, welche die Geschwin-
digkeit einer Atherwelle an diesem Punkte in dieser Richtung erleidet. Die Gesch-
windigkeit einer Welle ist proportional der Quadratwurzel der elastischen Krafte,
welche zur Fortpflanzung dienen, und umgekehrt proportional der von diesen
Kraften zu bewegenden Athermassen. Da jedoch die durch die elastischen Deforma-
tionen hervorgerufenen Veranderungen der Dichte meist nur unbedeutend sind, so
wird man sie auch in diesem Falle wahrscheinlich vernachlassigen diirfen. Man wird
also mit grosser Annaherung sagen konnen: Die Quadratwurzel aus dem Verhaltnis
der Veranderung der Fortpflanzungsgeschwindigkeit (Wellenlange) ist gleich dem
Verhaltnis der Veranderung der elastischen Kraft.
Was fur eine Art von Atherwellen, ob Licht oder elektrodynamische, und was fur
eine Methode der Messung der Wellenlaange fur die Untersuchung des magnetischen
Feldes am geeignetsten sei, wage ich nicht zu entscheiden; im Prinzip ist es ja
schliesslich gleich.
 Albert Einstein's 'First' Paper 17

Zunachst kann, wenn iiberhaupt eine Veranderung der Wellenlange im magnetis-

chen Feld in irgendeiner Richtung sich konstatieren lasst, experimentell die Prage
gelost werden, ob nur die Komponente des elastischen Zustandes in der Richtung
der Fortpflanzung der Welle oder auch die dazu senkrechten Komponenten eine
Wirkung auf die Fortpflanzungsgeschwindigkeit ausiiben, da a priori klar ist, dass
in einem regelmassigen magnetischen Feld, sei es zylinder- oder pyramidenformig,
die elastischen Zustande an einem Punkt senkrecht zur Richtung der Kraftlinien
vollstandig homogen sind und anders in der Richtung der Kraftlinien. Lasst man
daher senkrecht zur Richtung der Kraftlinien polarisierte Wellen durchdringen, so
ware fiir die Fortpflanzungsgeschwindigkeit die Richtung der Schwingungsebene von
Bedeutung — wenn die zur Fortpflanzung einer Welle senkrechte Komponente der
elastischen Kraft wirklich auf die Geschwindigkeit der Fortpflanzung einen Ein-
fluss ausiibt. Dies durfte jedoch wahrscheinlich nicht der Fall sein, trotzdem das
Phanomen der Doppelbrechung darauf hinzuweisen scheint.
Nachdem so die Frage entschieden ware, wie die drei Komponenten der Elas-
tizitat auf die Geschwindigkeit einer Atherwelle einwirken, kann zur Untersuchung
des magnetischen Feldes geschritten werden. Um den Zustand des Athers in dem-
selben recht begreifen zu konnen diirften drei Falle unterschieden werden:
1. Kraftlinien, die sich pyramidenartig am Nordpol vereinigen.
2. Kraftlinien, die sich pyramidenartig am Siidpol vereinigen.
3. Parallele Kraftlinien.
In diesen Fallen ist die Fortpflanzungsgeschwindigkeit einer Welle in der Rich-
tung der Kraftlinien und senkrecht dazu zu untersuchen. Unzweifelhaft nriissen
sich so die elastischen Deformationen samt ihrer Entstehungsursache ergeben, wenn
es nur gelingt, geniigend ganaue Instrumente zur Messung der Wellenlange zu
bauen.
Der interessanteste, aber auch subtilste Fall ware die direkte experimentelle Un-
tersuchung des magnetischen Feldes, welches um einen elektrischen Strom herum
entsteht, denn die Erforschung des elastischen Zustandes des Athers in diesem Falle
erlaubten [sic] uns, einen Blick zu werfen in das geheimnisvolle Wesen des elek-
trischen Stromes. Die Analogie erlaubt uns aber auch sichere Schliisse iiber den
Atherzustand im magnetischen Felde, das den elektrischen Strom umgibt, wenn
nur die vorher angefuhrten Untersuchungen zu einem Ziele fiihren.
Die quantitativen Forschungen iiber die absoluten Grossen der Dichte und
elastischen Kraft des Athers konnen, wie ich glaube, erst beginnen, wenn qualitative
Resultate existieren, die mit sicheren Vorstellungen verbunden sind; nur eins glaube
ich noch sagen zu miissen. Sollte sich die Wellenlange nicht proportional erweisen
V'A + k, wobei A die elastischen Atherkrafte a priori, also fiir uns eine empirisch zu
findende Konstante, k die (variable) Starke des magnetischen Feldes bedeutet, die
natiirlich den erzeugten in Betracht kommenden elastischen Kraften proportional
ist, so ware der Grund hierfur in der durch die elastische Deformationen erzeugten
Veranderung der Dichte des bewegten Athers zu suchen.
18 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

Vor allem aber muss sich zeigen lassen, dass es fiir den elektrischen Strom
zur Bildung des magnetischen Feldes einen passiven Widerstand gibt, der propor-
tional ist der Lange der Strombahn und unabhangig vom Querschnitt und Material
des Leiters.
2
Max Planck and the Law of
Blackbody Radiation*

1. The Early Work of Robert Gustav Kirchhoff

Towards the end of 1859 Gustav Robert Kirchhoff, Professor of Physics at the
University of Heidelberg, submitted two papers to the Prussian Academy concerning
questions of radiation. 1 One of them dealt with the explanation of the so-called
Fraunhofer lines, i.e., the dark lines observed in the solar spectrum (Kirchhoff,
1859a); it contributed, together with the experimental investigations carried out by
Kirchhoff and his colleague Robert Bunsen, to establishing the methods of chemical
spectral analysis (Kirchhoff and Bunsen, 1860). The other did not lead immediately
to any practical application; in it a rather specific property of bodies emitting
light and invisible heat radiation was expounded, namely the fact that the ratio
of emissivity to absorptivity must be the same for all bodies, provided a given
wavelength of the radiation is observed and the bodies have the same temperature
(Kirchhoff, 1859b). Kirchhoff concluded further:
The ratio of the power of emission to the power of absorption, e/a, common to all bodies,
is a function depending on the wavelength [of the radiation emitted or absorbed] and the

Invited Planck Lecture, delivered on 15 December 1975, at the Akademie der Wissenschaften
der DDR, East Berlin, to mark the 75th anniversary of Max Planck's discovery of the quantum
of action. Revised and enlarged version published in The Historical Development of Quantum
Theory (with Helmut Rechenberg, Springer-Verlag New York, 1982, pp. 24-59).
1
Gustav Robert Kirchhoff was born on 12 March 1824 in Konigsberg. From 1842 he studied
at the University of Konigsberg, especially under Franz Neumann. After receiving his doctorate
in 1847 he went to Berlin and became Privatdozent at the University of Berlin a year later. In
1850 he was called to Breslau as an Extraordinarius; there he met the chemist Robert Wilhelm
Bunsen (1811-1899). Bunsen, who moved to Heidelberg the following year, proposed (in 1854)
his friend Kirchhoff for the Professorship of Physics at the University of Heidelberg, which had
become vacant when Philipp von Jolly left for Munich. Finally, in 1875 Kirchhoff was appointed
to the chair of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin, where he died on 17 October 1887.
Kirchhoff made numerous contributions to experimental and theoretical physics. He worked on
electricity, especially on the connection between electrostatic and electrodynamic concepts, and
derived a theorem which gives t h e distribution of the currents in a network (Kirchhoff's rules).
He worked on various other problems, such as the thermal conductivity of iron, reflection and
refraction from crystals, and the thermodynamics of solutions. However, his most important
researches concerned the emission and absorption of light; these were important not only for
physics but also for chemistry and astrophysics.

19
20 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

temperature. At low temperatures this function assumes the value zero in the case of the
wavelengths of visible radiation, and values different from zero for larger wavelengths; at
higher temperatures the function [e/a] takes on a finite value also for the wavelengths of
visible rays. At the temperature for which this function (considered for the wavelength
of a given visible ray) ceases to be zero, all bodies begin to emit light having the colour
of this ray, except those [bodies] which possess a negligibly small power of absorption for
[rays of] this colour at this temperature; the larger the power of absorption, the more light
does a body emit. (Kirchhoff, 1859b, p. 726) 2

In a subsequent paper in Annalen der Physik Kirchhoff discussed t h e relation be-

tween emissivity and absorptivity in great detail; in particular, he introduced there
t h e concept of a completely black body, defining it as a b o d y which absorbs all
radiation falling u p o n it (Kirchhoff, 1860).
Although Kirchhoff's discussion of the emission a n d absorption of visible a n d
(invisible) heat radiation a p p e a r e d t o deal w i t h a n a b s t r a c t problem of only theo-
retical interest, m a n y physicists concerned themselves during t h e following decades
with t h e properties of the function $(A, T ) ,

^,T) = Qx, (!)

which expressed t h e ratio e/a, emissivity to absorptivity, for a given wavelength
of radiation, A, on the t e m p e r a t u r e T. ( T h e absorptive power of a body, o^, is
defined as t h e ratio of the intensity of the absorbed to t h e incident radiation for a
given wavelength A.) T h e reason for t h a t interest m a y b e easily u n d e r s t o o d if one
takes into account the general situation t o w a r d s the end of t h e nineteenth century.
At t h a t time, for instance, t h e illumination of t h e cities at night, b o t h by gas a n d
electricity, was introduced; evidently, for practical a n d economic reasons it became
necessary t o find t h e most efficient means of producing visible light. Second, since
t h e exploration of the e a r t h and the continents seemed to move towards t h e s t a t e
of completion, m a n turned his attention increasingly t o t h e study of celestial ob-
jects a n d stars. T h e investigation of the s p e c t r a of stars, in particular, seemed to
provide i m p o r t a n t hints concerning their properties, such as their surface temper-
atures. T h e latter could b e derived, in principle, by observing the distribution of
intensity of t h e radiation among t h e wavelengths a n d comparing t h e result with
2
Kirchhoff was not the first to discuss the relation between emission and absorption of (heated)
bodies. After the experimental work of John Leslie (1766-1832), establishing the proportionality
between the total emission and absorption of two bodies (Leslie, 1804), especially the Scottish
physicist and meteorologist Balfour Stewart (born on 1 November 1828 at Edinburgh, died on
19 December 1887 at Manchester) concerned himself with the problem. In a paper, entitled 'An
Account of Some Experiments on Radiant Heat' and read in March 1858 before the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, Stewart presented his empirical results claiming that the absorption of a heated
plate equals its emission for all kinds of radiation (Stewart, 1858). In this paper Stewart also gave
a theoretical proof for his finding; he argued, from the assumption that particles in the interior of
bodies emit equal amounts of radiation independently when at uniform temperature, that emission
and absorption of any type of heat radiation must be equal for any part of a body. His proof did not,
however, allow him to compare different materials and to postulate, as Kirchhoff did, a universal
function of temperature and wavelengths. A historical discussion of the respective achievements
of Stewart and Kirchhoff in radiation theory has been given by Daniel M. Seigel (1976).
 Max Planck and the Law of Blackbody Radiation 21

Kirchhoff's function $(A,T). Third, after the recognition of light as electromag-

netic waves one turned to explore systematically the full spectrum of these waves,
discovering quite new forms of radiation. Thus, Samuel Pierpont Langley extended
the range of observable heat radiation to include wavelengths of one-millionth of a
metre by his bolometer method (Langley, 1886) and Heinrich Hertz demonstrated
the existence of electromagnetic waves emitted by oscillating currents in open cir-
cuits, having wavelengths of the order of a metre (Hertz, 1888a). On the other
hand, the electromagnetic spectrum was also extended on the ultraviolet side to
shorter and shorter wavelengths, especially through the discovery of X-rays and of
7-radiation from radioactive substances, which took place shortly before the end of
the nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century, respectively.

2. Towards t h e Derivation of Wien's Law

The discoveries mentioned above evidently required an immense improvement of the
experimental methods; completely new techniques had to be developed to register,
say, the long electromagnetic waves, and the precision and reliability of known tech-
niques had to be increased. In this development the physicists received help from
outside; because of the needs of growing industrial production in Europe and the
United States a strong pressure was exerted on governments and educational insti-
tutions to provide the means for such improvements of techniques and methods. On
one hand, laboratories were installed at universities and technical institutions were
established, equipped with modern instruments and apparatus; thus, for example,
the establishment of the Cavendish Chair and Laboratory at Cambridge University
was strongly motivated by the idea that the work performed in the Laboratory might
result in obtaining better and more accurate standards for industrial purposes. On
the other hand, for the same reason, special national institutes and laboratories were
also created, which had not only to control the standard weights and measures but
also to develop methods and standards for new technologies. The first of these insti-
tutes (or bureau of standards), the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in Berlin,
came into being in 1887, with substantial help from the industrialist and inventor
Werner von Siemens, the founder of the electrical firm of Siemens una1 Halske.4 The
various precision methods developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt
were combined towards the end of the nineteenth century to provide fundamental
data concerning the energy distribution in blackbody radiation — data on which a
theoretical understanding of Kirchhoff's function could be achieved.
Ever since Friedrich Wilhelm (William) Herschel had demonstrated the heat ef-
fects of infrared radiation in the very beginning of the nineteenth century, physicists
had been interested in the study of the radiation emitted by hot bodies. In order
to investigate the visible part of the spectrum, optical and, later on, photographic
3
T h e electromagnetic nature of X- and 7-rays was confirmed only much later, i.e., in connec-
tion with the discovery of their interference effects in crystal lattices (Friedrich, Knipping and
Laue, 1912).
4
For a history of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt see the article of Karl Scheel (1913).
22 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

methods were used. The latter were also found useful for the ultraviolet part. The
infrared region, the heat radiation in the original sense of the word, could be ob-
served by its temperature-increasing effect, which was objectively registered, say, by
a thermocouple. The experimental observation of infrared radiation was substan-
tially improved when Samuel Pierpont Langley invented the so-called 'bolometer,'
an instrument using the temperature-dependent change of the resistivity of platinum
wire blackened by carbon (Langley, 1881).5 With it Langley observed the radiation
emitted from heated copper, including wavelengths up to 5.3 fi; he demonstrated,
in particular, a definite displacement of the maximum of intensity with increasing
temperature of the copper — the temperature of the probe was varied between
330°C and 815°C — towards smaller wavelengths (Langley, 1886). Langley's mea-
surements were extended by Priedrich Paschen, then at the Technical University of
Hanover.6 Paschen entered the field in 1892 and concerned himself for several years
with various techniques of observing and measuring the intensity of heat radiation,
employing many different substances such as incandescent gases and solid matter.
Finally he obtained detailed results from several solid emitters including carbon,
copper oxide and platinum; these results converged to yield an empirical formula
for Kirchhoff's function, that is,

$(A,T) = C l A-Qexp(-^), (2)

where ciand c^ were constants and the negative exponent — a assumed the value
of about —5.5 (Paschen, 1896). Shortly before Paschen's publication of his empir-
ical law, Wilhelm Wien had arrived at the same result on the basis of theoretical
arguments (Wien, 1896).

S.P. Langley was born on 22 August 1834 in Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts. He completed
his formal education on graduating from Boston High School in 1851. After travelling in Europe
(1864-1865), he became an assistant at the Harvard Observatory in 1865. In 1866 he was ap-
pointed assistant professor of mathematics at the U.S. Naval Academy and placed in charge of
the observatory. In 1867 Langley was made Director of the Allegheny Observatory and Professor
of Physics and Astronomy at Western University, Pennsylvania. From 1887 onwards Langley was
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He died in Aiken, South Carolina,
on 27 February 1906.
Besides astronomical researches, especially on stellar spectra, Langley made aerodynamical
studies and designed, for instance, engine-driven airplanes. He received many honours and prizes,
including memberships in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Societies of
London and Edinburgh. He was awarded the Rumford and Henry Draper Medals.
Louis Carl Heinrich Priedrich Paschen was born in Schwerin, Mecklenburg, on 22 January 1865.
He studied mathematics, natural science and physics at the Universities of Strasbourg and Berlin
from 1884 to 1888, receiving his doctorate from Strasbourg in 1888. In 1888 he became an
assistant to Johann Wilhelm Hittorf (1824-1914) at the University of Miinster; in 1891 he became
an assistant of Heinrich Kayser (1853-1940) in Hanover, where he received his Habilitation two
years later and held the position of a Dozent for 'Physics and Photography' from 1895. In 1901
Paschen was appointed Ordinarius (full professor) of physics at the University of Tubingen. He
stayed there, apart from a short period at the University of Bonn (1919-1920), until 1924, then
he was called to Berlin to succeed Emil Warburg as President of the Physikalisch-Technische
Reichsanstalt, where he remained from 1924 to 1933. He died in Potsdam on 25 February 1947.
Paschen worked primarily in spectroscopy, both on heat radiation and optical spectroscopy.
Under his leadership Tubingen became the 'mecca of spectroscopy.'
 Max Planck and the Law of Blackbody Radiation 23

Equation (2) describes the energy density distribution, p\, among the various
wavelengths of the radiation emitted by an idealized body, which Gustav Kirchhoff
had called a 'completely black' or just a 'black' body, i.e., a body which possesses the
property of absorbing all the radiation falling upon it (Kirchhoff, 1860, Section 1).
The first attempts to derive theoretically the energy distribution of blackbody ra-
diation, which is identical with Kirchhoff's function, i.e., <fr(A,T) = p\, were made
by Eugen Lommel (1837-1899), then Professor of Physics at the University of Mu-
nich, by Vladimir Alexandrovich Michelson (1860-1927), then at the University of
Berlin, and by Ludwig Boltzmann, then professor of physics at the University of
Graz. While Lommel had based his approach on a mechanical model describing
the vibrations in a solid body (Lommel, 1878), Michelson had used arguments from
kinetic gas theory, including Maxwell's velocity distribution of molecules, to arrive
at a formula for $(A, T) (Michelson, 1888).7 On the other hand, Ludwig Boltzmann
had based his treatment right away on Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light
when he derived the law obtained empirically by Joseph Stefan, which accounted
for the total intensity of the radiation (both visible and invisible) emitted by a
heated blackbody (Stefan, 1879). Boltzmann had also used a connection between
radiation and the second law of thermodynamics that had been put forward sev-
eral years earlier by the Italian physicist Adolfo Bartoli. 8 Bartoli had considered, in
particular, the possibility of increasing (by an adiabatic process) the temperature
of a body situated in an enclosure through which heat radiation passed; this adia-
batic process consisted in the reduction of the volume of the enclosure, and he had
found that, in order not to violate the second law of thermodynamics, one had to
take into account the pressure exerted by the heat radiation on the body (Bartoli,
1876). In his first note analyzing Bartoli's result, Boltzmann had arrived at the
conclusion that the existence of a radiation pressure of magnitude p = hp, where p
is the radiation density, was consistent with Stefan's law (Boltzmann, 1884a). In a
second note Boltzmann had then sharpened his conclusion to state the following: if
the second law was valid and if heat radiation — like any radiation — possessed a
pressure of the above magnitude, Stefan's law, i.e.

P = AT\ (3)

with A a constant, would follow immediately (Boltzmann, 1884b). 9

7
For a detailed discussion of Michelson's result, see Kangro, 1970, Section 2. Let us just mention
here that from his function followed the constancy of the product, A ^ a x • T, where A m a x is the
wavelength having the maximum intensity and T the absolute temperature.
8
Adolfo Bartoli, born on 19 March 1851 in Florence, studied physics in Pisa and Bologna, and
became Professor of Physics at the University of Sassari (1878) and the Technical Institute of
Florence (1879-1886), then Professor and Director of the Observatory at the University of Catania,
and finally Professor at the University of Pisa. He died on 18 July 1896 in Pavia. Bartoli worked
on various problems, including the specific heat and the dissociation of water and on electrolysis.
He demonstrated the existence of radiation pressure.
9
T o find this result, Boltzmann used the equation, Tdp — pdT = pdT, which can be derived from
the second law of thermodynamics. (It follows from the fact that dQ/T is a total differential,
24 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

Bartoli and Boltzmann's idea of bringing both electrodynamics and thermody-

namics into the treatment of heat radiation was picked up and followed further
by Wilhelm (Willy) Wien, who had served as an assistant at the Physikalisch-
Technische Reichsanstalt since 1890.10 In his first publication on this subject, enti-
tled ' Uber eine neue Beziehung der Strahlung schwarzer Korper zum zweiten Haupt-
satz1 (Wien, 1893a), he immediately extended the earlier treatments: instead of
talking about the energy of the full spectrum — as Boltzmann had done — he
was interested in the energy distributed among given wavelengths. 11 Wien stud-
ied, especially, the enlargement of the energy density of radiation caused by the

where dQ is the sum of the changes in the internal energy and the external work.) In this equation
he substituted the relation p= ^p and integrated the resulting equation, putting the constant of
integration equal t o zero, from which Eq. (3) followed.
Wilhelm Carl Werner Otto Fritz Franz Wien was born on 13 January 1864 in Gaffken near
Fischhausen, East Prussia. After attending the Gymnasium in Rastenburg and Konigsberg, he
studied mathematics and physics in Gottingen (1882), Berlin (1882 to the winter semester 1883-
1884), Heidelberg (summer 1884) and again Berlin (winter semester 1884-1885 to winter semester
1885-1886), receiving his doctorate in 1886 under Helmholtz with a thesis on a problem of the
diffraction of light by sharp edges. Wien then worked for several years on the agricultural es-
tate (Landgut) of his father until he received the appointment as Helmholtz' assistant at the
Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in 1890. He obtained his Habilitation two years later with
a theoretical work on the 'localization of energy.' (Wien considered the concept of 'localization of
energy' in connection with Poynting's theory of the propagation of energy in the electromagnetic
field and the subsequent work of Heinrich Hertz.) Wien discussed the flux of energy in hydro-
dynamics, in elastic bodies and finally electrodynamics, including radiation theory. (See Wien,
' Uber den Begriff der Lokalisierung der Energie' ('On the Conception of Localization of Energy'),
1892.) In 1896 he was called to the Technische Hochschule, Aachen, as Extraordinarius for physics
(succeeding Philipp Lenard); in 1899 he succeeded Otto Wiener as Ordinarius in Giessen, and a
year later he moved as Ordinarius to Wurzburg (this time succeeding Wilhelm Conard Rontgen).
Finally in 1920 he obtained the Chair of Experimental Physics at t h e University of Munich, again
succeeding Rontgen. He died in Munich on 30 August 1928.
Wilhelm Wien was one of those rare twentieth-century physicists who worked as a specialist
both in experimental and theoretical physics. His researches on blackbody radiation won him the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1911. Wien worked in thermodynamics and hydrodynamics and made
pioneering experimental studies of the electric and magnetic deflection of canal and cathode rays
(the latter contributed to the discovery of the electron); he also worked on X-rays and on the
recombination of ions.
11
Wien became interested in the problem of heat radiation on his own. T h u s he spoke in his
autobiography (written in 1927, and published posthumously in 1930) about the freedom which
he had at the Reichsanstalt to deal, besides his official task of establishing a standard of light
intensity, also with theoretical topics of his choice, such as water waves and cyclones. He wrote:
The independence, which I soon achieved in scientific work, immediately bore fruits. I
turned to the field of heat radiation and succeeded in discovering in it — without really
great effort — new laws, which received the approval of the scientific world. Even today
it gives me great satisfaction that my first paper on the displacement law [Wien, 1893a]
was presented by Helmholtz — though after some resistance — to the Berlin Academy.
He [Helmholtz] told me that he had thought earlier that the radiation could not be
treated thermodynamically, but that he had been convinced [by my work] that I was
right. I did not understand Helmholtz' reservations, for in my opinion radiant heat was
an integral part of heat itself and had to satisfy the same laws. Only later did I come to
know that Lord Kelvin had spoken much more definitely against my theories, for he said:
"Thermodynamics are going mad." I gave the general formulation of my ideas on the
properties of the heat radiation in my paper on ' Temperatur und Entropie der Strahlung'
('Temperature and Entropy of Radiation' [Wien, 1894]). Apart from a few minor points,
it has been fully accepted into theoretical physics. (Wien, 1930, pp. 16-17)
 Max Planck and the Law of Blackbody Radiation 25

following two processes: the increase of the temperature and the adiabatic decrease
of the volume of the enclosure containing the radiation; and he demanded that
both processes should lead to the same energy distribution among the wavelengths
if the same final temperature were reached. He achieved this goal after taking into
account Doppler's principle, that is, the fact that A, the wavelength of the emitted
radiation, depends on the velocity of the source. In particular, he obtained the
result that the densities, p\Q and p\, associated with Ao and A, the wavelengths
before and after the volume change, respectively, were related as p\j' p\0 = (AoA)4;
hence, due to the Stefan-Boltzmann law, Eq. (3), there followed the equation

TX = TQXQ = const. (4)

Equation (4) expresses the fact, which later on came to be called 'Wien's displace-
ment law,' that for blackbody radiation the product of temperature and the related
(through the adiabatic process) wavelength remains a constant; a special example
of this law is provided by taking for A the wavelength, A max , having the maximum
intensity or energy density at the given temperature. 12
Wien continued to investigate the properties of blackbody radiation during the
following years. Especially, he used the concept of entropy to rederive Eq. (4) and
to obtain an inequality, that is,

const. ,„
^ - * 5 - > (5)

for p\, the energy density of blackbody radiation in the interval of wavelength be-
tween A and X + dX (Wien, 1894). A couple of years later he arrived at an explicit
law for px by applying the 'molecular hypothesis' in addition to thermodynamic
arguments (Wien, 1896). In particular, Wien started by assuming that blackbody
radiation was emitted by molecules obeying Maxwell's velocity distribution; that
is, the number of molecules having the velocity v was proportional to the quan-
tity i;2 exp(const. v2/T), where T denotes the absolute temperature. Further, he
assumed that A, the wavelength of radiation emitted by a molecule, was a function
only of its velocity v and vice versa. In this way he obtained the result

px = F(X)exp(-^-) , (6)

where F(X) and /(A) are functions of the wavelength A. By applying the displace-
ment law, Eq. (4), Wien determined the function in the exponent to be

12
I n the latter sense, Wien's law was used in future. The name 'displacement law' (' Verschiebungs-
gesetz') first occurred in a paper by Otto Lummer and Ernst Pringsheim six years later (Lummer
and Pringsheim, 1899b, p. 219).
26 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

and from Stefan-Boltzmann's law, Eq. (3), he derived that

FW = %- (6b)

Hence Wien's Eq. (6) agreed with Friedrich Paschen's empirical law, Eq. (2), pro-
vided one could identify p\ with Kirchhoff's function $(\,T), Eq. (1), and take
the value 5 for Paschen's power exponent; thus it reproduced the observed data
perfectly.
In June 1896 Willy Wien left Berlin to take a professorship at the Technische
Hochschule of Aachen, at a time when the Physikalisch- Technische Reichsanstalt
became increasingly involved in the preparations for absolute measurements of the
blackbody radiation law. It was very fortunate that Max Planck, who had succeeded
Gustav Kirchhoff as Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Berlin,
at that time became a Haustheoretiker (resident theoretician) of the experimental-
ists working on blackbody radiation. Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born in
Kiel on 23 April 1858, the son of a law professor at the university of that city; he
had received his early education in Kiel and Munich and had studied physics and
mathematics at the Universities of Munich (1874-1877) and Berlin (1877-1878). 13
Among his professors were Philipp von Jolly (1809-1894) in Munich and Hermann
von Helmholtz (1821-1894) and Gustav Kirchhoff (1824-1887) in Berlin. Planck
obtained his doctorate, summa cum laude, from the University of Munich in 1879
with a thesis entitled ' Uber den zweiten Hauptsatz der Warmelehrd (Planck, 1879),
and became Privatdozent in Munich the following year. In 1885 he accepted a call
to an Extraordinariat (associate professorship) at the University of Kiel, and four
years later he moved to the University of Berlin, where he was promoted to a full
professorship of theoretical physics in 1892. Planck devoted his early scientific ca-
reer to the investigation of one general topic, the second law of thermodynamics,
especially the concept of entropy and its application to problems of physical and
chemical equilibrium, such as phase transitions and electrolytic dissociation. 14 His
first published papers already exhibited the characteristic features of his later work:
on one hand, he carefully worked out the details of his theories and calculated
results that could be compared immediately with the available experimental data
(see, e.g., Planck, 1881, 1890); on the other, he put great emphasis on clear defini-
tions of the fundamental concepts. Having been deeply influenced by the writings
of Rudolf Clausius, he had sought in particular to establish the 'principle of the

13
Planck's father Johann Julius Wilhelm von Planck, came from an academic family (both his
grandfather, Gottlieb Jakob Planck, and his father, Heinrich Ludwig Planck, were professors of
theology at the University of Gottingen). His second wife, E m m a Patzig, came from Greifswald.
The Planck's had seven children, Hugo and E m m a (from Johann Julius Planck's first wife), Her-
mann, Hildegard, Adalbert, Max and Otto (from his second wife); thus Max Planck was the fourth
son of Johann Planck.
14
Planck did fundamental work on these fields, i.e., both on phase transitions and electrolytic
dissociation. However, his contributions were not the first: on phase transitions, Josiah Willard
Gibbs had published his pioneering papers several years earlier, while on dissociation the Swedish
chemist Svante Arrhenius was slightly ahead of Planck.
 Max Planck and the Law of Blackbody Radiation 27

increase of entropy' in thermodynamics on the same level as the law of conserva-

tion of energy. In this endeavour he had pointed out the crucial role of irreversible
processes, i.e., the fact that in nature process occur, such as the conduction of heat,
which cannot be reversed completely. Planck's analysis of mechanical and ther-
modynamic concepts had brought him into disagreement with Wilhelm Ostwald
and the partisans of 'energetics' ('Energetik'). For example, at the Liibeck Assem-
bly of Natural Scientists (Naturforscherversammlung) in 1895, where Ostwald and
Georg Helm had defended the views of the energeticists and Boltzmann had at-
tacked them, Planck had been on Boltzmann's side. 15 However, unlike Boltzmann,
who had argued against Energetik on the basis of the molecular hypothesis and the
kinetic theory of matter, Planck had used thermodynamic reasoning in order to
criticize Ostwald's concept of 'volume energy.' Indeed, Planck had adopted a very
cautious attitude towards the molecular hypothesis and, in a paper entitled lGegen
die neuere Energetik' ('Against the New Energetics'), had declared concerning this
point: 'I do not intend, at this point, to enter the arena [on behalf of] the mech-
anistic view of nature; for that purpose, one has to carry out far-reaching and, to
some extent, very difficult investigations' (Planck, 1895b, p. 73).
At the time of the controversy about Energetik Planck had turned his attention
to what was a new field of investigation for him: heat radiation. Several reasons
may be cited why he had become interested in this field. First, there was the gen-
eral interest of many physicists in the phenomena of electromagnetic waves after
Heinrich Hertz' successful experiments. 16 A second reason was Planck's concern
with the importance of thermodynamic arguments in electromagnetism. Thus, for
example, in his inaugural address (Antrittsrede) to the Prussian Academy on 28
June 1894, he had expressed the hope 'that we can obtain a closer understanding
also of those electrodynamic processes, which are directly caused by the [action
of] temperature and which show up especially in heat radiation, without having
to follow the laborious detour through the mechanical interpretation of electricity'
15
Later on Planck recalled the discussions about Energetik at t h e Liibeck Naturforscherversamm-
lung in the following words:
It is evident t h a t this fight, in which especially Boltzmann and Ostwald opposed each
other, was carried out rather spiritedly; it also led to some drastic effects since both
opponents were well-matched in quickness and wit. In it, according to what I said
earlier [concerning my position], I could only play the role of a second to Boltzmann,
whose services were not only not recognized but even not liked by him [Boltzmann].
(Planck, 1948a, p. 20)
16
T h e general interest in Maxwell's electrodynamics and its consequences may be discerned, for
example, by the great number of lecture courses on it at the University of Berlin during the early
1890s. Among others, courses were given by Willy Wien (in the summer semester 1892 and winter
semester 1892-1893), Max Bernhard Weinstein (1852-1918) who had translated Maxwell's Treatise
on Electricity and Magnetism into German (in the winter semester 1891—1892), and Heinrich
Rubens (on the experimental foundations of the subject in the winter semester 1894-1895). Max
Planck also lectured in Berlin regularly on the theory of electricity and magnetism (e.g., winter
semesters 1889-1890, 1892-1893, and 1895-1896) (see Kangro, 1970, Sections 6.1.2 and 6.1.3).
In this connection, it is worth noting that Planck gave the memorial address on Heinrich Hertz
on 16 February 1894 at the Berlin Physical Society, in which he emphasized Hertz' role in the
development of Maxwell's theory and electromagnetic waves (Planck, 1894a).
28 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

(Planck, 1894b, p . 643). Evidently, Planck h a d t h e occasion to p a r t i c i p a t e in m a n y

discussions between his Berlin colleagues, such as Willy Wien a n d Heinrich Rubens,
who worked actively on t h e problems of heat radiation. And, before starting his
theoretical investigations, he knew t h a t detailed experiments to explore t h e proper-
ties of blackbody radiation were being m a d e ready at the Physikalisch- Technische
Reichsanstalt. T h u s he reported later in his scientific autobiography:
By the measurements of [Otto] Lummer and [Ernst] Pringsheim at the Physikalisch-
Technische Reichsanstalt, performed to investigate the spectrum of heat radiation, my
attention was directed to the theorem of Kirchhoff, stating that in an evacuated cavity —
bound by totally reflecting walls and containing emitting and absorbing bodies that are
completely arbitrary [in shape, material and temperature] — a state will be established in
course of time, in which all bodies assume the same temperature and in which all proper-
ties of the radiation [contained in the cavity] — even its spectral energy distribution — do
not depend on the structure and composition of the bodies, but solely on the temperature.
This so-called normal energy distribution [of the radiation thus obtained in the cavity],
therefore, represents an absolute quantity; and, since the search for the absolute always
appeared to me to be the most beautiful ("schonste") task of research, I eagerly started
to deal with it. (Planck, 1948a, pp. 23-24)

M a x Planck was aware, of course, of Wien's law, Eq. (6), which represented the ex-
isting observations extremely well. However, t h e derivation given by Wien, t h o u g h
it employed t h e r m o d y n a m i c arguments, did not satisfy Planck's t a s t e completely.
He hoped to arrive at t h e same or a similar equation in a more systematic way,
using fewer hypotheses t h a n his predecessor.
Planck presented the first paper, in which he concerned himself w i t h t h e prop-
erties of electromagnetic radiation, t o the Prussian Academy in its session of 21
March 1895. I n this work he studied the processes of absorption a n d emission of
radiation or, as he called it, a 'resonator' (Planck, 1895a, p. 296). 1 7 He continued

1
Planck referred in his paper first to the 'secondary conductor, whose characteristic period al-
most coincides with the period of the primary wave' and, therefore, will be 'excited by resonance
to perform electric oscillations, the more so the less the periods differ from each other' (Planck,
1895a, p. 289). With this statement he had in mind Heinrich Hertz' experimental setup consisting
of 'primary and secondary conducting systems' ('primdre und secunddre Letter,' Hertz, 1888a,
p. 552), which Hertz had used to determine the propagation of electromagnetic waves; that is, the
waves were created in the primary system and directed in the secondary system. In a later paper
Hertz had also given the theory of his systems; he represented both the primary and the secondary
by a conductor of length I, in which an electric charge of magnitude e performed harmonic os-
cillations, and he investigated the properties of the electromagnetic waves that were emitted by
the primary system and absorbed and reemitted by the secondary system (Hertz, 1888b). Planck
quoted these results of Hertz when establishing his theory of absorption and emission of electric
waves by resonance (see Planck, 1895a, p. 290, footnote 1).
It should be noted that Planck later on used the words 'resonator' and 'oscillator' synonymously
for the elementary systems which absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation (see Planck, 1900a,
p. 69). The idea that oscillating ions were responsible for the emission and absorption of electro-
magnetic radiation by matter was emphasized, in particular, by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz. In his
book Versuch einer Theorie der electrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Korpern
(Attempt at a Theory of the Electric and Optical Phenomenon in Moving Bodies, Lorentz, 1895),
dealing with electrical and optical phenomenon in moving bodies, in which Lorentz presented this
idea, he also drew attention to the fact that his formulae for the components of the electric and
 Max Planck and the Law of Blackbody Radiation 29

the investigation of resonating systems during the following years, including, for
example, the treatment of the damping effect arising from the emission of radiation
(Planck, 1896). He explained the goal of his endeavours in the following words:
The study of conservative damping [i.e., of radiation damping, which Planck called 'conser-
vative,' because it did not violate energy conservation] appears to me to be of fundamental
importance due to the fact that through it one's view is opened towards the possibility
of a general explanation of irreversible processes with the help of conservative forces —
a problem which confronts the theoretical research in physics more urgently every day.
(Planck, 1896, p. 154)
By the 'pressing problem' Planck referred to the question of whether the thermody-
namic concept of entropy could be defined in a rational way either in mechanics or
in electrodynamics. Ludwig Boltzmann had proposed an expression for the entropy
derived from kinetic gas theory (Boltzmann, 1872). But in 1896 Planck's assistant
Ernst Zermelo suggested that Boltzmann's result was not correct (Zermelo, 1896).
He argued, especially, that according to a mechanical theorem of Henri Poincare, a
conservative system of gas molecules would always return to its initial state after
a finite period of time; hence, a mechanical definition of entropy which implied an
evolution of the system in time towards a more probable state in the sense of Boltz-
mann was not at all possible. Against this objection of Zermelo, Boltzmann argued
that his conclusion could be avoided by taking into account the statistical nature of
the H-theorem.18 That is, the entropy could be defined only by a probability con-
sideration, and it was this definition which Planck did not like at all. He preferred
to argue that: 'A rigorous theory of friction on the basis of the kinetic theory [of
matter] will be achieved only with the help of an additional hypothesis' (Planck,
1897a, p. 58). In contrast to this situation in gas theory, however, he hoped that
he would be able to prove (without reference to a probability assumption) the exis-
tence of irreversible processes in a cavity, i.e., a volume surrounded by completely
reflecting walls and filled with (heat) radiation and one resonator a la Hertz, which
absorbs and emits radiation. In particular, he claimed:

Such a resonator will be excited by absorbing energy from the [electromagnetic] radiation
incident upon it from the outside, and it will be damped by emitting energy. Now the
emitted energy will not, in general, be of the same type [especially, it will not have the
same energy distribution] as the absorbed energy; hence the resonator will change by
its vibration the nature of the electromagnetic waves propagating through its vicinity to
some extent. It can be shown that these changes possess, in several respects, a certain

magnetic fields emitted by the oscillating ions agreed with the expressions 'by which Hertz [Hertz,
1888b] has described the oscillations in the neighbourhood of his vibrator' (Lorentz, 1895, p. 54).
Thus, by the end of the century, Planck took into account the identity of Lorentz' molecular
oscillators and his elementary resonators.
18
A discussion about the significance of — H, Boltzmann's mechanical quantity for t h e entropy
of a system, had started already in late 1894, when several British authors, including George
Hartley Bryan (1864-1924) and Samuel Hawksley Burbury (1831-1901), had written critical notes
in Nature on that question. In his reply Boltzmann had pointed out that his Zf-theorem, i.e., the
statement about the decrease of the expression H (and the consequent increase of entropy), could
not be proved by purely mechancial means (Boltzmann, 1895b).
30 The Golden Age of Theoretical Physics

direction, i.e., the tendency to homogenize [some properties, especially the temperature,
of the incident radiation]. (Planck, 1897a, p. 59)

3. Planck's Work on Irreversible Radiation Processes

In five contributions, entitled ' Uber irreversible Strahlungsvorgange' ('On Irreversi-
ble Radiation Processes') and submitted to the Prussian Academy between February
1897 and May 1899, Planck tried to prove his above statement (Planck, 1897a,b,c,
1898, 1899). These investigations resulted in establishing Wien's law, Eq. (6), as
the law defining the energy distribution of blackbody radiation.
Planck proceeded in the following manner. He first calculated the effect of a
resonator (having a large wavelength and small damping constant) on incident elec-
tric waves (Planck, 1897a). After rejecting a criticism of Boltzmann, who claimed
that all processes used by Planck were reversible, Planck went on to prove the ex-
istence of irreversibility in a system, in which a resonator situated in the centre of
a spherically shaped totally reflecting cavity absorbs and emits radiation (Planck,
1897c).19 However, in carrying out the proof he had to make an assumption con-
cerning the nature of radiation. He examined this assumption in more detail in
his fourth communication, where he introduced the concept of 'natural radiation'
(natiirliche Strahlung) and claimed: 'It will be shown, in particular, that each radi-
ation process, exhibiting the properties of "natural" radiation, necessarily proceeds
in an irreversible manner, such that the waves after passing the resonator have ra-
diation intensities with smaller fluctuations than before' (Planck, 1898, p. 450). 20
For example, if natural radiation belonging to two different temperatures was ab-
sorbed and reemitted by the resonator, the emitted radiation would correspond to a
more uniform temperature. By invoking the hypothesis of natural radiation Planck
not only succeeded in obtaining a relation between the energy of the resonator and
the intensity of radiation for a given wavelength or frequency, but also in defining
the entropy of radiation by a proper expression such that the change of the total
entropy (of the resonator plus radiation) was always a positive quantity. In the
last communication Planck finally generalized his proof of irreversibility to a cavity
containing heat radiation and many resonators; he further identified the 'electro-
magnetic' entropy with the thermodynamic entropy and derived from it the law of
blackbody radiation (Planck, 1899). He summarized the results of the irreversible
radiation processes in a long paper, which was received by Annalen der Physik on
7 November 1899 (Planck, 1900a).
Within less than three years Planck had achieved his goal of connecting the ther-
modynamic and electrodynamic theories. He had been able, especially, to introduce

In particular, Boltzmann argued that Planck had only used outgoing, but not incoming, spherical
waves in his derivation (Boltzmann, 1897). Planck replied, however, that his assumption about the
incoming wave (that it should always have finite intensity) forbade the use of incoming spherical
waves (Planck, 1897b).
20
Planck defined 'natural radiation' by certain averaging procedures over the phases of the radi-
ation. (See Planck, 1898, p. 468, Eqs. (69).)
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