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150 RELATIVITY, THE SPECIAL THEORY

nal would draw immediate attention. He expected sharp opposition and the

severest criticism. But he was very disappointed. His publication was followed by

an icy silence. The next few issues of the journal did not mention his paper at all.

The professional circles took an attitude of wait and see. Some time after the

appearance of the paper, Albert Einstein received a letter from Berlin. It was sent

by the well-known Professor Planck, who asked for clarification of some points

which were obscure to him. After the long wait this was the first sign that his

paper had been at all read. The joy of the young scientist was especially great

because the recognition of his activities came from one of the greatest physicists of

that time' [M2]. Maja also mentioned that some time thereafter letters began to

arrive addressed to 'Professor Einstein at the University of Bern.'

The rapidity with which special relativity became a topic of discussion and

research is largely due to Planck's early interest. In his scientific autobiography,

Planck gave his reasons for being so strongly drawn to Einstein's theory: 'For me

its appeal lay in the fact that I could strive toward deducing absolute, invariant

features following from its theorems' [P7a]. The search for the absolute—forever

Planck's main purpose in science—had found a new focus. 'Like the quantum of

action in the quantum theory, so the velocity of light is the absolute, central point

of the theory of relativity.' During the winter semester of 1905-6, Planck pre-

sented Einstein's theory in the physics colloquium in Berlin. This lecture was

attended by his assistant von Laue. As a result von Laue became another early

convert to relativity, published in 1907 the pretty note [LI] on the Fizeau exper-

iment, did more good work on the special theory, and became the author of the

first monograph on special relativity [L4]. Planck also discussed some implications

of the 'Relativtheorie' in a scientific meeting held in September 1906 [P8]. The

first PhD thesis on relativity was completed under his direction [M3].

The first paper bearing on relativity but published by someone other than Ein-

stein was by Planck [P6], as best I know. Among his new results I mention the

first occasion on which the momentum-velocity relation

of relativistic point mechanics were written down. Planck derived Eq. 7.23 from

the action of an electromagnetic field on a charged point particle, rewriting Eqs.

the trandformation laws

and the varational principle