Physicist Walter Gordon’s “Anmeldebuch” [registration book], 5.75 x 9, 10 pages, used during his studies at the Konigliche Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat zu Berlin from the fall of 1917 to winter 1921, detailing the classes attended and fees paid with the signature of each professor beside the corresponding course entry. One class attended by Gordon was Einstein’s “Statistik und Quantentheorie” during the winter 1917–1918 semester. Gordon’s register is signed twice by Gustav Ludwig Hertz, the nephew of Heinrich Hertz, as well as scientific luminaries including mathematician Constantin Caratheodory, philosopher Alois Riehl, physical chemist Walther Hermann Nernst, physicist James Franck, physicist Max von Laue, and experimental physicist Ernst Gehrcke. Einstein’s signature has been clipped from the ledger and is not present. In very good to fine condition, with expected cover wear, partial separation to spine, a few loose pages, and some scattered light soiling to pages. Accompanied by Gordon’s notice for his oral examinations for his doctorate on June 2, 1921, which requested he appear before four professors for questions (including Max Planck, his main advisor) in white tie and tails; and a printed thank-you card on the occasion of his 1932 engagement to Gertrude Lobbenberg. After Gordon received his doctorate in 1921, he became the assistant to Max von Laue. Einstein’s statistic and quantum theory lectures attended by Gordon in the winter of 1917–18, occurred only a year before his prediction that light waves could be bent by a star’s gravitational pull were observed by astronomer Arthur Eddington in 1919. Eddington’s proof propelled Einstein into international celebrity—cementing his reputation as one of the greatest thinkers in science. RR Auction COA.
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