The Net Advance of Physics RETRO:
SPECIAL RELATIVITY

SPECIAL RELATIVITY before 1925.

Most material in Net Advance Retro is very old. It may be obsolete or incorrect. For more recent technical information, please consult the special relativity page at the regular Net Advance site.

• General: Introductory:
  • Über die spezielle und die allgemeine Relitivitätstheorie (Gemeinverständlich) by Albert Einstein [Brunswick: Vieweg, 1920] English translation: Relativity: the Special and General Theory (A Popular Exposition) [London: Methuen, 1920]
  • Sidelights on Relativity by Albert Einstein [no publication data; lectures given in 1920 and '21]
  • Einstein: Einblicke in seine Gedankenwelt by Alexander Moszkowski [Hamburg: Hoffmann & Campe, 1921] English translation: Einstein the Searcher [New York: Dutton, no date but clearly 1920s] One of the first popular expositions of relativity, based on conversations between the author (a then-famous Berlin literary figure) and Einstein himself. Quite different from most later works of a similar nature, especially in its otherworldly, poetic feel.
  • The Theory of Relativity and its Influence on Scientific Thought by Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington [Oxford: Clarendon, 1922]

• General:
  • The Principle of Relativity by Ebenezer Cunningham [Cambridge, 1914] An advanced text of remarkable sophistication, especially for one of the first book-length accounts of special relativity in English. Cunningham is both a scientific conservative and a defender of Einstein. He points out that not every form of æther is ruled out by relativity but only the "unnecessarily restricted rigid" one of the later Victorians; he makes an early attempt at relativistic thermodynamics; he discusses the vexing question of defining probability in Minkowski's spacetime.
  • Relativity and the Electron Theory by Ebenezer Cunningham [London: Longmans, Green, 1915] Following up on his Principle of Relativity, Cunningham continues his attempt to describe special relativity as a theory of æther.
  • Eight Lectures on Theoretical Physics Delivered at Columbia University in 1909 by Max Planck [New York: Columbia, 1915]
  • Relativity, the Electron Theory, and Gravitation by Ebenezer Cunningham [London: Longmans, Green, 1921] Includes general relativity. Much closer to the usual Twentieth-Century account of relativity than Cunningham's earlier works.
  • The Mathematical Theory of Relativity by Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington [Cambridge, 1923]
  • The Meaning of Relativity by Albert Einstein [Princeton, 1923]

• Aspects: ÆTHER; GENERAL RELATIVITY;

• Re: PHILOSOPHY:
  • Philosophy and the New Physics by Louis Rougier [Philadelphia: Blakiston's, 1921]

THE NET ADVANCE OF PHYSICS --- Retro