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2003-10-05 17:49:27 UTC
Albert Einstein, The Incorrigible Plagiarist
(Christopher Jon Bjerknes)
(XTX Inc., DownersGorve, Illinois, USA, 2002)
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
(Albert Einstein)
.............................
The name ''Einstein'' evokes images of a good-humoured genius, who
revolutionised our concepts of space, time, energy, mass and motion. Time
named Albert Einstein "person of the century". The language itself has
incorporated "Einstein" into our common vocabulary as a synonym for
extraordinary brilliance. Many consider Einstein to have been the finest
mind in recorded human history.
That is the popular image, fostered by textbooks, the media, and hero
worshiping physicists and historians. However, when one reads the scientific
literature written by Einstein's contemporaries, a quite different picture
emerges: one of an irrational plagiarist, who manipulated credit for their
work.
Einstein is perhaps most famous for the special theory of relativity,
published in 1905 in the German physics journal, Annalen der Physik. The
paper was devoid of references, a fact that Einstein's friend and Nobel
prize winner for physics, Max Born, found troubling.
....................
The fact that Einstein was a plagiarist is common knowledge in the physics
community. What isn't so well-known is that the sources Einstein parroted
were also largely unoriginal. In 1919, writing in the Philosophical Magazine
Harry Bateman, a British mathematician and physicist who had emigrated to
the United States, unsuccessfully sought acknowledgment of his work.
"I am perhaps entitled to do this as my work on the subject of general
relativity was published before that of Einstein and Kottler, and appears to
have been overlooked by recent writers."
My book is a documentation of Einstein's plagiarism of the theory of
relativity. It discloses his method for manipulating credit for the work of
his contemporaries, reprints the prior works he parroted, and demonstrates
that he could not have drawn his conclusions without prior knowledge of the
works he copied but failed to reference.
Numerous republished quotations from Einstein's contemporaries prove that
they were aware of his plagiarism. Side-by-side comparisons of Einstein's
words juxtaposed to those of his predecessors prove the almost verbatim
repetition. There is even substantial evidence presented in the book that
Einstein plagiarised the work of his first wife, Mileva Maric, who had
plagiarised others.
"Although generally associated with the names of Einstein and Minkowski, the
really essentia physical considerations underlying the theories are due to
Larmor and Lorentz." -- Alfred Arthur Robb
"Einstein published a paper which set forth the relativity theory of
Poincaré and Lorentz with some amplifications, and which attracted much
attention." -- Sir Edmund Whittaker
"The appearance of Dr. Silberstein's recent article on 'General Relativity
without the Equivalence Hypothesis' encourages me to restate my own views on
the subject. I am perhaps entitled to do this as my work on the subject of
General Relativity was published before that of Einstein and Kottler, and
appears to have been overlooked by recent writers." -- Harry Bateman
"All this was maintained by Poincare and others long before the time of
Einstein, and one does injustice to truth in ascribing the discovery to
him." -- Charles Nordmann
"Many of you have looked upon [Einstein's] paper 'Zur Elektrodynamik
bewegter Koerper' in Annalen der Physik ... and you will have noticed some
peculiarities. The striking point is that it contains not a single reference
to previous literature. It gives you the impression of quite a new venture.
But that is, of course, as I have tried to explain, not true." -- Max Born
"In point of fact, therefore, Poincaré was not only the first to enunciate
the principle, but he also discovered in Lorentz's work the necessary
mathematical formulation of the principle. All this happened before
Einstein's paper appeared." -- G. H. Keswani
"Einstein's explanation is a dimensional disguise for Lorentz's. ... Thus
Einstein's theory is not a denial of, nor an alternative for, that of
Lorentz. It is only a duplicate and disguise for it. ... Einstein
continually maintains that the theory of Lorentz is right, only he disagrees
with his 'interpretation.' Is it not clear, therefore, that in this, as in
other cases, Einstein's theory is merely a disguise for Lorentz's, the
apparent disagreement about 'interpretation' being a matter of words
only?" -- James Mackaye
Mr Bjerknes, an American historian of science, has authored six books on
Einstein and the theory of relativity. Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible
Plagiarist (ISBN 0971962987) is available at www.amazon.com.
..................
http://www.dipmat.unipg.it/~bartocci/ep6/ep6-bjerk-rec.htm
(Christopher Jon Bjerknes)
(XTX Inc., DownersGorve, Illinois, USA, 2002)
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources"
(Albert Einstein)
.............................
The name ''Einstein'' evokes images of a good-humoured genius, who
revolutionised our concepts of space, time, energy, mass and motion. Time
named Albert Einstein "person of the century". The language itself has
incorporated "Einstein" into our common vocabulary as a synonym for
extraordinary brilliance. Many consider Einstein to have been the finest
mind in recorded human history.
That is the popular image, fostered by textbooks, the media, and hero
worshiping physicists and historians. However, when one reads the scientific
literature written by Einstein's contemporaries, a quite different picture
emerges: one of an irrational plagiarist, who manipulated credit for their
work.
Einstein is perhaps most famous for the special theory of relativity,
published in 1905 in the German physics journal, Annalen der Physik. The
paper was devoid of references, a fact that Einstein's friend and Nobel
prize winner for physics, Max Born, found troubling.
....................
The fact that Einstein was a plagiarist is common knowledge in the physics
community. What isn't so well-known is that the sources Einstein parroted
were also largely unoriginal. In 1919, writing in the Philosophical Magazine
Harry Bateman, a British mathematician and physicist who had emigrated to
the United States, unsuccessfully sought acknowledgment of his work.
"I am perhaps entitled to do this as my work on the subject of general
relativity was published before that of Einstein and Kottler, and appears to
have been overlooked by recent writers."
My book is a documentation of Einstein's plagiarism of the theory of
relativity. It discloses his method for manipulating credit for the work of
his contemporaries, reprints the prior works he parroted, and demonstrates
that he could not have drawn his conclusions without prior knowledge of the
works he copied but failed to reference.
Numerous republished quotations from Einstein's contemporaries prove that
they were aware of his plagiarism. Side-by-side comparisons of Einstein's
words juxtaposed to those of his predecessors prove the almost verbatim
repetition. There is even substantial evidence presented in the book that
Einstein plagiarised the work of his first wife, Mileva Maric, who had
plagiarised others.
"Although generally associated with the names of Einstein and Minkowski, the
really essentia physical considerations underlying the theories are due to
Larmor and Lorentz." -- Alfred Arthur Robb
"Einstein published a paper which set forth the relativity theory of
Poincaré and Lorentz with some amplifications, and which attracted much
attention." -- Sir Edmund Whittaker
"The appearance of Dr. Silberstein's recent article on 'General Relativity
without the Equivalence Hypothesis' encourages me to restate my own views on
the subject. I am perhaps entitled to do this as my work on the subject of
General Relativity was published before that of Einstein and Kottler, and
appears to have been overlooked by recent writers." -- Harry Bateman
"All this was maintained by Poincare and others long before the time of
Einstein, and one does injustice to truth in ascribing the discovery to
him." -- Charles Nordmann
"Many of you have looked upon [Einstein's] paper 'Zur Elektrodynamik
bewegter Koerper' in Annalen der Physik ... and you will have noticed some
peculiarities. The striking point is that it contains not a single reference
to previous literature. It gives you the impression of quite a new venture.
But that is, of course, as I have tried to explain, not true." -- Max Born
"In point of fact, therefore, Poincaré was not only the first to enunciate
the principle, but he also discovered in Lorentz's work the necessary
mathematical formulation of the principle. All this happened before
Einstein's paper appeared." -- G. H. Keswani
"Einstein's explanation is a dimensional disguise for Lorentz's. ... Thus
Einstein's theory is not a denial of, nor an alternative for, that of
Lorentz. It is only a duplicate and disguise for it. ... Einstein
continually maintains that the theory of Lorentz is right, only he disagrees
with his 'interpretation.' Is it not clear, therefore, that in this, as in
other cases, Einstein's theory is merely a disguise for Lorentz's, the
apparent disagreement about 'interpretation' being a matter of words
only?" -- James Mackaye
Mr Bjerknes, an American historian of science, has authored six books on
Einstein and the theory of relativity. Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible
Plagiarist (ISBN 0971962987) is available at www.amazon.com.
..................
http://www.dipmat.unipg.it/~bartocci/ep6/ep6-bjerk-rec.htm