Unique autograph poem signed, "A. Einstein," one page both sides, 5.5 x 7.5, no date but circa 1920. Einstein drafts a poem for his friend, Bertha Moszkowski, the wife of writer and satirist Alexander Moszkowski. Beneath the poem, upside down, are various calculations referring to a 1920 publication by Otto Stern on a direct measurement of thermal molecular velocities (Zeitschrift für Physik, Volume 2, 1920, pp. 49-56). These mathematics deal with the distribution of molecular velocities, using the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution function. Einstein quotes two results, one labelled “Stern,” and his own result, labelled “richty,” meaning “right.” Einstein had worked with Stern, and in 1913 they had coauthored a paper dealing with the specific heats of gases. Both that paper and the calculations here deal with the branch of physics known as statistical mechanics.
Stern published an addendum to his original work, which was received by the Zeitschrift für Physik on October 22, 1920, and appeared in the same volume (pp. 417-421). In it, he made a correction based on an objection raised by Einstein. The calculations on the manuscript page refer to this objection. Einstein had also corresponded with Max von Laue about this problem in July 1920.
On the reverse are further calculations by Einstein related to the problem of spatial quantization of electron orbits in the 'old quantum theory.' Corresponding connections can be found, for example, in Chapter 6, §2 of Arnold Sommerfeld's 'Atombau und Spektrallinien,' 2nd edition, Braunschweig 1921. In the very last line Einstein writes the Euler-Lagrange equations—a very important and very fundamental set of equations in classical mechanics, learned by every undergraduate physics major—and uses them to determine the equation of motion for the angle psi shown in the diagram (the Greek letter labelling the lower angle).
Einstein's poem reads, in full (translated):
"I'll take you, O Muse, by the braid.
Give some porridge from your pot.
Otherwise (just think!) your friend's grace will cool.
She's already showing me something like impatience.
––
So that you'll be joyfully inclined to this request.
Let your friend be shown to you quickly through the peephole.
Whether she's slender – O Muse – I swear –
She goes through the biblical eye of a needle.
––
And her tongue never rests.
And her love is ever watchful.
For husband and son and parrot.
And the endless row of maids.
––
You remain silent – O Muse – saving for the community.
Of pen-chewing poet friends.
Therefore, Bertha Moskowski, with bold flourish,
I offer you this as homage."
In fine condition.
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