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scientific article; zbMATH DE number 107750
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scientific article; zbMATH DE number 107750 |
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23 January 1993
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concepts of physics
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abstraction
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Einstein
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Szilard
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0.77304035
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[The first edition (1981) has been reviewed in Zbl 0563.01019.] Einstein's inventions are interesting by themselves, even if we ignore the inventor's fame in other areas of human endeavour. Einstein's work as a patent expert in Bern -- which was quite nontrivial -- probably laid a foundation for his experiments and inventions. The book deals, in a relatively popular manner, only with this less well-known area of Einstein's activities. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize Einstein's abilities -- from the high school graduation exams onwards -- to grasp the often nontrivial essence of the matter (usually, the basic laws of physics) by abstracting away unnecessary details. The resulting clear and elegant eplanation of phenomena led to brilliant theoretical papers and important applied work. The authors also note that Einstein in his student years at Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule in Zürich started as a rather independent experimenter, despite a less than encouraging attitude by his professors. The need to expose and clearly present the underlying principles of a (possible) invention, especially described in a less than satisfactory manner, was essential for his job as a patent expert (and as a reviewer of Beiblätter zu den Annalen der Physik (1905-07)). The authors also describe, sometimes in detail, Einstein's consulting work in these areas. Understanding and observation of both mechanical and ``electrical'' macrofluctuations due to chaotic movement of molecular particles is presented as the first extended example of Einstein's activities as an experimental physicist and an inventor. This lead to the experimental establishment of the existence of atoms. The book also describes in detail Einstein's experiments (together with de Haas) on Ampère's molecular currents which established the existence of what is now known as Einstein-de Haas effect. Again, the authors emphasize Einstein's ability to discover and use the same basic concepts in different areas of physics (in particular, they relate this work to the famous superconductivity works by Kamerlingh Onnes). Generally, Einstein's works experimentally established the existence of certain phenomena (predicted by theoreticians), rather than merely obtained numerical values of certain coefficients. In the more applied areas, the authors describe Einstein's unsuccessful, but relatively unknown and interesting work on plane wings and his more well-known and substantially more successful work on absorption refrigerators and magnetohydrodynamic pumps -- devices without moving parts. The latter work, coauthored by Einstein and Leo Szilard, was a source of about 20 patents. The book describes the cooperation of these two physicists based mainly on [\textit{Leo Szilard}: His version of facts. Selected recollections and coorespondence, MIT Press (1978)]. In particular, the authors emphasize Szilard's brilliant ideas in such areas as information theory (1929), nuclear chain reaction (1934), etc., which have been either ahead of their time (and therefore underestimated and forgotten), or registered only as patent claims. The last chapter of the book presents, in less detail, various inventions coauthored by Einstein, including an exposure meter, a gyrocompass, a magnetostrictive loudspeaker, a hearing aid, and so on, with a particular emphasis on his work as a patent expert in gyrocompass-related cases. The book has a rather extensive reference list (about 250 references), including relatively unknown ones. Unfortunately, the book has no index. The first edition of this book has been published in 1981 (126000 copies); the number of copies of this, second (revised and enlarged), edition is 20000. Only one chapter (about absorption refrigerators with electromagnetic pumps) remained almost unchanged since the first edition. The single (very interesting) addition to this chapter is an extended quote from a letter by Kapitsa to one of the Soviet leaders, Malenkov. In this letter Kapitsa describes Szilard's approach to inventions as an example, to justify the need to radically change the worst possible -- Soviet -- system for dealing with inventions.
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