THE NEW KINEMATICS 147
and v remarkable without referring to his own quantum relation between the
energy and the frequency of light, which must have been fresh in his mind.
Remarkable though this silence may be, it is not inexplicable. As I have already
intimated, Einstein's belief in the validity of the Maxwell-Lorentz electrody-
namics was strong but not unqualified. As he put it in his light-quantum paper,
'The wave theory of light which operates with continuous functions of space vari-
ables has proved itself an excellent tool for the description of purely optical phe-
nomena. ... [However] it is conceivable that [this] theory may lead to conflicts
with experiment when one applies it to the phenomena of the generation and
conversion of light' [E7]. He considered the Maxwell-Lorentz theory of the free
electromagnetic field to be so good that 'it will probably never be replaced by
another theory'; but he had his doubts about this theory where the interaction of
light and matter was concerned. Also, he rightly regarded his own quantum
hypotheses of 1905 more of a new phenomenological description than a new the-
ory, in sharp contrast to his relativity theory, which he rightly regarded as a true
theory with clearly defined first principles. Thus it is not surprising that he would
derive Eqs. 7.12 and 7.18 separately, without appeal to Eq. 7.19.
Not just in 1905 but throughout his life Einstein considered quantum theory as
a preliminary to a true theory and relativity as the royal road toward such a the-
ory. But that is a subject that will have to wait until Chapter 26.
- 7 Could Have Said That More Simply.' In the fall of 1943 Einstein
received a visit from Julian Boyd, then the librarian of the Princeton University
library. The purpose of Boyd's call was to ask Einstein to give the manuscript of
the June paper to the Book and Authors War Bond Committee as a contribution
to the sale of war bonds. Einstein replied that he had discarded the original man-
uscript after its publication but added that he was prepared to write out a copy of
its text in his own hand. This offer was gladly accepted. Einstein completed this
task on November 21, 1943. Under the auspices of the committee, this manuscript
was auctioned at a sale in Kansas City on February 3, 1944, sponsored by the
Kansas City Women's City Club and the Women's Division of the Kansas City
War Finance Committee. The winning bid of six and a half million dollars was
made by the Kansas City Life Insurance Company. On that same occasion, an
original incomplete manuscript by Einstein and Valentin Bargmann, entitled 'Das
Bi-Vektor Feld,' was auctioned for five million dollars.* Soon after these events
both manuscripts were given to the Library of Congress [B3].
Helen Dukas told me how the copy of the June paper was produced. She would
sit next to Einstein and dictate the text to him. At one point, Einstein laid down
his pen, turned to Helen and asked her whether he had really said what she had
just dictated to him. When assured that he had, Einstein said, 'Das hatte ich ein-
facher sagen konnen.'
"This paper was published in English in 1944 [E8].
