Eyewitness 1934: He was no Einstein at predictions
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When Albert Einstein was quizzed about his theories by Pittsburgh newspaper reporters, he wasn't afraid to admit uncertainty.
A series of five images of the Nobel Prize-winning physicist accompanied one Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story about his 1934 visit to the city for a scientific conference. "These portrait photographs show him first, listening eagerly; next, getting a gleam of insight into the questions; third, explaining slowly and patiently; fourth, making his point clear; and last -- the smile itself.
"He did not hesitate to say, 'I don't know,' frequently in reply to queries by his interviewers," according to the newspaper.
Einstein was in Pittsburgh for a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He remains best known for his theory of relativity -- which concludes, among other things, that time depends on how fast you are moving -- and for the famous formula "E=mc2" (energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared).
During his lecture at Carnegie Tech, now Carnegie Mellon University, Einstein filled chalkboards several times as he offered what he called a new and simplified proof for that equation.
Howard W. Blakeslee, the Associated Press science editor, had the task of interpreting Einstein's Dec. 28 talk for Post-Gazette readers. A native German speaker, Einstein delivered his Carnegie Tech lecture in English. The newspaper said it was the first time he had done a talk in the language of his new homeland.
"He got rid of the complicated electromagnetic fields with which this equivalence of mass [or weight] and energy have heretofore been proven," Blakeslee wrote in a next-day story. "He used instead the simple collision of two material particles to prove the same thing."
The journalist described the talk as "his first important speech in the United States and his first important announcement in several years."
Einstein had left Germany for lectures in America shortly before Adolf Hitler came to power in January 1933. On returning to Europe, he renounced his German citizenship and spent several months in exile in Belgium and Great Britain. He returned to the United States for good in October 1933.
First Published January 24, 2010 12:00 am
