ebook img

The Practical Einstein: Experiments, Patents, Inventions PDF

217 Pages·2012·2.985 MB·English
Save to my drive
Quick download
Download
Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.

Preview The Practical Einstein: Experiments, Patents, Inventions

The Practical Einstein This page intentionally left blank The Practical Einstein Experiments, Patents, Inventions József Illy The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore © 2012 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2012 Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Mary land 21218- 4363 www .press .jhu .edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Illy, József, 1933– The practical Einstein : experiments, patents, inventions / József Illy. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-0457-8 (hdbk. : acid-free paper) ISBN-10: 1-4214-0457-5 (hdbk. : acid-free paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-0533-9 (electronic) ISBN-10: 1-4214-0533-4 (electronic) 1. Einstein, Albert, 1879–1955—Infl uence. 2. Inventions. 3. Physics— Experiments. I. Title. QC16.E5I45 2012 530.078—dc23 2011034750 A cata log record for this book is available from the British Library. Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or specialsales@ press.jhu.edu. The Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post- consumer waste, whenever possible. To Marci with I+Sz This page intentionally left blank Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1 Musings 7 The Flettner Ship 7 Why Do Rivers Meander? 10 2 Experiments 15 Michelson, Morley, and Eötvös Reinvented 15 The Mass of the Electron 17 Ampère’s Molecular Currents 19 The Velocity of Gas Reactions 24 A Geodynamo Model? 25 Light: Waves or Particles? 27 Explaining Superconductivity 34 3 Expert Opinions 37 The Patent Offi ce 37 Gyrocompasses 38 Mixing Tubes 48 Hebeluft schiff 49 Tungsten Wires for Incandescent Lamps 50 Triodes for Amplifi cation 51 Sound Direction Ranging in Air and Water 52 Prospecting for Ore and Water from a Dirigible 55 Riveting Hammers and Pile Drivers 56 Production of High- Pressure Gases 57 “Electrophonic Piano” 57 Aerial Stereophotography 60 Magnetic Cores with Low Electric Conductivity 61 Telescope for Daylight Observations of Phenomena near the Sun 62 viii Contents Makeup Mirror 63 Balanced Tapered Bearing Rollers 64 4 Eu ro pe an Inventions 67 The “Little Machine” (Maschinchen) 67 Planimeter 71 The Cat’s Back Airfoil 72 Compasses for Land, Sea, and Air 80 Filtering Viruses 94 Refrigerators in a Row 95 Magnetostrictive Reproduction of Sound 121 Hearing Aid 127 5 American Inventions 131 Altimeter 131 Waterproof Breathable Clothes 134 Heat- Insulating Vessel 136 Liquid Filtering by Electrostatic Method 136 Automatic Correction of Mea sured Data 137 Airplane Horizon Indicator 138 Electrostatic Microphone 141 Fluid- Level Indicator 148 Light- Intensity Self- Adjusting Camera 151 Steel-T ape Recording 152 Aircraft Speedometer 153 Timer 156 On the Threshold of the Manhattan Project 157 Torpedoman Einstein 159 Notes 171 Index 197 Preface The scope of the experiments, opinions for patent cases, and inventions in which Albert Einstein participated shows how multifarious his activities were, how deeply he was involved in searching for various technological solutions, and how wide his knowledge of physics was outside the fi elds for which he has been so famous. I am not a pioneer in exploring this topic; the fi rst book dedicated to Ein- stein’s practical ideas is Frenkel and Yavelov’s account. Wolfgang Graff ’s dis- sertation concentrates on Einstein’s inventions made b efore Einstein emi- grated to the United States. Graff is the ideal historian to discuss Einstein and Leó Szilárd’s refrigerators, as he is a specialist in cooling technology. Michael Eckert presents a broad picture of aeronautics around the First World War, and Jobst Broelmann does the same for the development of the gyrocompass, two other fi elds in which Einstein tested his mettle. Dieter Lohmeier and Bernhardt Schell analyze Einstein’s contribution to the gyro compass by pub- lishing and annotating his correspondence with Hermann Anschütz-K aempfe and colleagues. Finally, Matthew Trainer published a concise report on Ein- stein’s selected inventions. My primary source of information in researching the book was the Albert Einstein Archives at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. This archive, as with archives in general, can be searched for names of correspondents and dates, but rarely for the content of the documents. This entails no problem when the persons who collaborated with Einstein in technical matters are widely known, such as Leó Szilárd, Gustav Bucky, or Rudolf Goldschmidt. When, however, Einstein proposes an experiment or is approached for an opinion, sometimes in letters exchanged with friends or family members, only a systematic reading of the documents will reveal the contents. Such reading has already been done for the period 1879– 1922, and the results published in the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein. These volumes are the reason for the abundance of information

See more

The list of books you might like

Most books are stored in the elastic cloud where traffic is expensive. For this reason, we have a limit on daily download.