EINSTEIN'S COLLABORATORS 491
used in the first radiotelegraphic link between Germany and the United States,
opened on June 19, 1914, with an exchange of telegrams between Wilhelm II and
Woodrow Wilson.
In the 1920s, Goldschmidt was director of an industrial research laboratory in
Berlin-Moabit. He held many patents. One of these, German patent 590783, held
jointly with Einstein, has the following history. An acquaintance of Einstein, a
distinguished singer, had become hard of hearing. In 1928 Einstein asked Gold-
schmidt's assistance in developing a new type of hearing aid for her. At that time,
he sent his friend one of his poetic creations:
Ein biszchen Technik dann und wann
Auch Griibler amusieren kann.
Drum kiihnlich denk ich schon so weit:
Wir legen noch ein Ei zu zweit.*
The final patent is entitled 'Device, especially for sound-reproduction equipment,
in which changes of an electric current generate movements of a magnetized body
by means of magnetostriction.' It was issued on January 10, 1934. Einstein's
address is given as 'Earlier in Berlin, present residence unknown.'
Goldschmidt emigrated to England in 1934 and in later years kept up a cor-
respondence with Einstein, d. 1950, Bournemouth, England.
- Cornelius Lanczos. (born Kornel Loewy, the name later Hungarianized).
b. 1892, Szekesfehervar, Hungary. PhD in 1921 with Rudolf Ortvay in Szeged.
Lanczos corresponded with Einstein from 1919 on and had already written over
a dozen papers on general relativity when he came to work with Einstein. In 1928,
Einstein wrote to Erwin Madelung in Frankfurt am Main, asking if it would be
possible for Lanczos to have a year's leave of absence from his position as an
assistant and Privatdozent at the University of Frankfurt in order to work with
Einstein on problems in unified field theory [E30]. A week later, Lanczos wrote
to Einstein, 'Young Bethe is being considered as my deputy' [L4]. Lanczos arrived
in Berlin in November 1928 for a one-year period. There are no joint papers.
Einstein refers to Lanczos' work in one of his articles on distant parallelism [E31],
a subject on which Lanczos wrote a review two years later [L5].
Lanczos returned to Frankfurt at the end of 1929. His distinguished career
included a professorship at Purdue (1931-46), a period of work in industry, and,
after 1954, a professorship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Dublin. He
wrote a number of books, three of which deal with Einstein, his oeuvre, and his
influence [L6, L7, L8]. d. 1974, Budapest.
- Hermann Miintz. I have only a few biographical notes on Miintz. He
was born in Poland and later became a German citizen [M6]. He corresponded
"In prose translation: A bit of technique now and then/Can also amuse thinkers./Therefore, auda-
ciously I'm thinking far ahead: One day we'll produce something good together.
