This is perhaps the most famous idea falsely attributed to Einstein. Specifically, this 1905 paper dealt with what Einstein called the Special Theory of Relativity (the General Theory would come in 1915). It was actually called “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”, and Einstein got by without listing any references. The original manuscript of the ‘The Theory of Relativity’ submitted for publication had his wife Mileva Maric’s name on it as co-author.
An interesting article titled “Theory of Relativity—Who is its Real Author?” by Dr. Rastko Maglic and J. W. McGinnis, President, International Tesla Society, in the Jul/Aug 1994 issue of ‘Extraordinary Science‘ magazine, contains references and documentation that suggests Maric was the real author of the paper.
This theory contradicted the traditional Newtonian mechanics and was based upon two premises:
- in the absence of acceleration, the laws of nature are the same for all observers; and
- since the speed of light is independent of the motion of its source, then the time interval between two events is longer for an observer in whose frame of reference the events occur at different places than for an observer in whose frame of reference the events occur in the same place. This is basically the idea that time passes more slowly as one’s velocity approaches the speed of light, relative to slower velocities where time would pass faster. This theory has been validated by modern experiments and is the basis for modern physics. But these two premises are far from being originally Einstein’s. FIRST OF ALL, THE IDEA THAT THE SPEED OF LIGHT WAS A CONSTANT AND WAS INDEPENDENT OF THE MOTION OF ITS SOURCE WAS NOT EINSTEIN’S AT ALL, BUT WAS PROPOSED BY THE SCOTTISH SCIENTIST JAMES MAXWELL in 1878.
Maxwell studied the phenomenon of light extensively and first proposed that it was electromagnetic in nature.
Many scientists didn’t really grasp relativity, prompting Arthur Eddington’s wisecrack (asked if it was true that only three people understood relativity, the British astrophysicist paused, then said, “I am trying to think who the third person is“). It’s difficult to understand because it’s pseudoscience meant to give credence to a false theory by a fake scientist to propel a false perception of our world.
James Maxwell wrote an article to this effect for the 1878 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica. His ideas prompted much debate, and by 1887, as a result of his work and the ensuing debate, the scientific community, particularly Lorentz, Michelson, and Morley reached the conclusion that the velocity of light was independent of the velocity of the observer.
Thus, this piece of the Special Theory of Relativity was known 27 years before Einstein wrote his paper. This debate over the nature of light also led Michelson and Morley to conduct an important experiment, the results of which could not be explained by Newtonian mechanics. They observed a phenomenon caused by relativity but they did not understand relativity. They had attempted to detect the motion of the earth through ether, which was a medium thought to be necessary for the propagation of light.
In response to this problem, in 1880, the Irish physicist George Fitzgerald, who had also first proposed a mechanism for producing radio waves, wrote a paper which stated that the results of the Michelson-Morley experiment could be explained if, “…the length of material bodies changes, according as they are moving through the either or across it by an amount depending on the square of the ratio of their velocities to that of light.”
THIS IS THE THEORY OF RELATIVITY, 13 YEARS BEFORE EINSTEIN’S PAPER!
FURTHER… IN 1892, HENDRIK LORENTZ, of the Netherlands, proposed the same solution and began to greatly expand the idea. All throughout the 1890’s, both Lorentz and FitzGerald worked on these ideas and wrote articles strangely similar to Einstein’s Special Theory detailing what is now known as the Lorentz-Fitz Gerald Contraction.
In 1898, the Irishman Joseph Larmor wrote down equations explaining the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction and its relativistic consequences, 7 years before Einstein’s paper. By 1904, “Lorentz transformations,” the series of equations explaining relativity, were published by Lorentz. They> describe the increase of mass, the shortening of length, and the time dilation of a body moving at speeds close to the velocity of light. In short, by 1904, everything in “Einstein’s paper” regarding the Special Theory of Relativity had already been published. The Frenchman Poincaré had, in 1898, written a paper unifying many of these ideas. He stated seven years before Einstein’s paper: “…we have no direct intuition about the equality of two time intervals. The simultaneity of two events or the order of their succession, as well as the equality of two time intervals, must be defined in such a way that the statements of the natural laws be as simple as possible.” Anyone who has read Einstein’s 1905 paper will immediately recognize the similarity and the lack of originality on the part of Einstein.
Thus, we see that the only thing original about the paper was the term ‘Special Theory of Relativity.’ EVERYTHING ELSE WAS PLAGIARIZED. Over the next few years, Poincaré became one of the most important lecturers and writers regarding relativity, but he never, in any of his papers or speeches, mentioned Albert Einstein. Thus, while Poincaré was busy bringing the rest of the academic world up to speed regarding relativity, Einstein was still working in the patent office in Bern and no one in the academic community thought it necessary to give much credence or mention to Einstein’s work. Most of these early physicists knew that he was a fraud.
