Sold For $8,120
*Includes Buyers Premium
TLS signed “Thos. A. Edison,” one page, 8.5 x 11, From the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison letterhead, December 14, 1923. Letter to Charles Kassel, in part: "The article is very interesting. Some day somebody will get the right theory and open up a new conception of space, matter, motion and ourselves. For years I have read and collected everything I could find time to read relating to the ether of space as created by the mathematical mind to explain physics. The more I read the more I reject their conceptions and theories. I cannot think by the use of mathematics, hence am compelled to use other instrumentalities or capacities of the brain. The result is that I do not believe there is any ether with the extraordinary properties ascribed to it. To me it is entirely unnecessary to explain things generally, but it is absolutely necessary to explain the theories of the mathematical brain." In fine condition, with a few small light stains.
Written in December 1923, this letter places Thomas A. Edison squarely within one of the most profound scientific turning points of the modern era. Just a few years earlier, in 1919, experimental observations during a solar eclipse had famously confirmed Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity, overturning the long-dominant Newtonian framework and dealing a decisive blow to the classical concept of the luminiferous ether. Einstein’s work replaced the ether with a radically new understanding of space and time as a unified, malleable spacetime—an idea that was mathematically elegant but deeply counterintuitive, even to many leading scientists of the period.
Edison’s remarks reflect both the intellectual turbulence of this transitional moment and his own distinctive approach to science. Long skeptical of abstract, mathematically driven theorizing, Edison aligns himself here with the growing rejection of the ether, yet remains uneasy with the mathematical foundations of modern theoretical physics; his preferred methods relied on conception, experimentation, and engineering. His anticipation that “some day somebody will get the right theory and open up a new conception of space, matter, motion and ourselves” captures the sense, widespread in the early 1920s, that relativity—despite its experimental success—had not yet fully settled the philosophical implications of the new physics. The letter thus stands as a revealing document of scientific history: a response by one of America’s most famous experimental minds to the revolutionary, theory-driven transformation of physics in the wake of Einstein’s triumph.
This item is Pre-Certified by PSA/DNA
Buy a third-party letter of authenticity for
$150.00
*This item has been pre-certified by a trusted third-party authentication service, and by placing a bid on this item, you agree to accept the opinion of this authentication service. If you wish to have an opinion rendered by a different authenticator of your choosing, you must do so prior to your placing of any bid. RR Auction is not responsible for differing opinions submitted 30 days after the date of the sale.
Third-party authentication service applies only to signatures and handwriting, and does not cover the addition of sketches, artwork, musical quotations, etc.
