While formulating his Special theory of relativity, Albert Einstein’s built heavily on the works of Hendrik Lorentz, Poincare, Minkowski, James Clerk Maxwell, Philipp Lenard', Wilhelm Wien, David Hilbert and Max Planck. . Einstein’s theory of relativity was taken as something very revolutionary in physics because unlike a perpetual motionist Einstein had great support of many godfathers like Max Planck, Walther Nernst, and later of Arthur Eddington and Sir Frances Dyson. Albert Einstein claimed: “The special theory, on which the general theory rests, applies to all physical phenomena with the exception of gravitation; the general theory provides the law of gravitation and its relation to the other forces of nature.”[i] Albert Einstein also stated: “In 1907 Johannes Stark asked me to write a monograph on the special theory of relativity in the journal Jahrbuch der Radioaktivitat. While I was writing this, I came to realize that all the natural laws except the law of gravity could be discussed within the framework of the special theory of relativity. I wanted to find out the reason for this, but I could not attain this goal easily.”[ii]

 

Please note that Einstein himself was aware of the fact  that his Special theory of relativity failed to apply to phenomena of gravitation, we shall see that this fact has tremendous appeal to the perpetual motionists as it  put him in advantageous position to have a  critical study of relativity in the light of understanding of Gravity perpetual motion Wheel.

 

1919 appears to have been the year marked for the turning point in Einstein’s career. Before that Einstein had a very limited popularity as he belonged to a  restricted circle of physicists and mathematicians only.  His Special Theory of Relativity along with the formula E = mc2 had generated little interest out side the circle. From 1904 until 1919 the Theory of Relativity excited curiosity only among a restricted band of mathematicians and scientists including as Riemann, Minkowski, Poincaré,Thomson, Fitzgerald, Lorentz, Maxwell,  Planck, Rutherford, Larmor,   Hilbert, Ricci, Levi-Civita, Eddington,85 Bohr, Schroedinger and Heisenberg.

 

In 1919, as fortunes of Einstein would have it, Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society decided to spend large sums of money and send some of their so called experts to the remote parts of the earth to check the validity of Einstein’s newly published General Theory of relativity. We don’t know what persuaded the experts to favor Einstein up to the extent of  selective manipulation of data to validate general theory of relativity.

 


In 1919, when Einstein's General Theory of Relativity was tested to be valid during a solar eclipse, Einstein became a worldwide scientific hero overnight. Considering the fact that Einstein was neither a politician, a filmstar nor a sportsman, Einstein’s rise into the public eye was amazing.

 

“No sooner did the news leak out that Einstein was coming to America than he was deluged with cabled invitations from presidents of academic institutions to lecture, and visit, and receive academic honours... America had fought against Germany. Nevertheless the Americans received Einstein with a tumultuous enthusiasm... On 2nd April 1921, as the boat was docking, reporters besieged him on shipboard. The mayor of New York City gave him an official welcome as if he were an American war hero. President Harding invited him to the White House...[iii] In October 1922 Einstein left for a visit to Japan... In a report to Berlin the German ambassador to Japan likened Einstein’s visit to a triumphant procession. Wherever he went enthusiastic crowds gathered spontaneously to catch a glimpse of him. He was received by the Emperor. The newspapers vied with one another to report his activities in both factual and fictional detail. He was showered with honours and all manner of gifts.”[iv]

 

 

 Later, in his scientific career, Einstein had also great support of media (TV stations, news companies, newspapers, radio stations, magazines, book publishing companies, etc)  run by influential Jewish people. When Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Einstein was fortuitously visiting the United States (he never returned to Germany). The Nazis quickly declared Einstein an enemy of the state, looted his house, and burned his books. In 1939, by writing a letter with Leo Szilárd to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that warned Americans of the possibility of Hitler’s atomic bomb, Einstein had created a tremendous political influence. In the twentieth century, Einstein received enough credit for changing the political balance of power, through so called scientific foundation in the development of nuclear power. However, the bitter truth of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is that the thousands of people who died there, burned alive all pointing towards greatness of Einstein! But we cannot blame Einstein because he was completely naïve about atom bomb. Christopher Jon Bjerknes states: “. . .Einstein did not invent the atomic bomb. In fact, he was ignorant of the concept of the bomb. However, with the help of Alexander Sachs, Einstein was chosen to write a letter to President Roosevelt urging him to instigate what would eventually become the “Manhattan Project”, the effort to develop an atomic bomb before the Nazis. Due to his ignorance, Leo Szilárd and Eugene Wigner had to explain the concept of the atomic bomb to Einstein, before he could write the letter. . . .When said program to develop an atomic bomb began, Einstein was not asked to participate, but rather was excluded from the research team. Why couldn’t Einstein, the most brilliant human being of all time become a member of the team, which developed the bomb, and upon whose work the fate of all of humanity might rest?”[v] It is reported that he was excluded from participation for security reasons. After the bombs had exploded on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he considered his letter one of his greatest mistakes.

 

After publication of his General Theory in 1916, Einstein devoted his major time in developing a “unified field theory in which his General Theory is blended with the electro-magnetic theory of matter.  In the early part of 1929, Einstein believed he had solved the problems involved in writing down field equations for his simplified field theory. :It was a big sensation when he published his articles.

 

“On the day of official publication of the third of a formidably technical series of nine articles on the theory that were comprehensible only to specialists, excited headlines appeared in foreign newspapers throughout the world. A paper in New York City (the New York Times – N.M.G.) printed an English translation of the whole abstruse article, complete with formulas, cabled direct from Berlin... Einstein’s new theory was hailed in the press as an outstanding scientific new advance.”[vi]

 

Einstein’s fiftieth birthday in 1929 became a world event. In 1952, after demise of Chaim Weizmann, Einstein was offered the post of President of the State of Israel but he wisely refused. When Einstein died in 1955, not only the community of the physicists cried over the loss of great hero, but also it became a   worldwide mourning, even politicians around the world came forward to shed tears. In 1979 a big statue of Einstein, three times his height, was built at a cost of one million eight hundred thousand dollars.  It was installed near the Lincoln Memorial in the Washington Mall in the heart of the American nation’s capital.

 

Through a strange set of these circumstances, Albert Einstein became hailed as both the greatest scientist of all time and the greatest man of the 20th century. Many fortuitous events also made his theory of relativity, more or less invulnerable andsacrosanct. Thus, world perpetuated Einstein’s eulogy never heard before even in the praise of works of God:

 

What a piece of work is theory of relativity! What a great theory! No errors!  No exceptions! Rigorously tested! What a genius Albert Einstein! The most brilliant scientist ever walked on earth! How noble in reason and inspiration! How infinite in faculties! How express and admirable in action, the beauty of the world of physics, and the paragon of 20th century!”

 

On April 18, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s demise, a relay of lights started around the globe in Princeton, New Jersey, the physicist’s home. The event, titled "Physics enlightens the world," marked a high point of this Einstein-inspired World Year of Physics 2005.



REFERENCES:

[i] Albert Einstein, 1919

[ii] Albert Einstein, How I Created the Theory of Relativity, Physics Today, Vol. 35, No.8, pp. 45-47

[iii] Einstein by Banesh Hoffmann and Helen Dukas: p.144.

[iv] Ibid.: p.150.

[v] Christopher Jon Bjerknes, Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist

http://home.comcast.net/~xtxinc/heroworship.htm

 

[vi] Einstein by Banesh Hoffmann and Helen Dukas: p.226