the Oxford Scientist
Danielle Edmunds
T
Einstein at th
he Bern town clock chimes: once, mechanical synchronisation of time, triggered twice, three times. Yet another patent his famously powerful thought experiments in
on clocks sits at the desk, this one claim‐ special relativity. The subject of one of the Annus
ing originality for sending time through tele‐ Mirabilis papers, special relativity is based on the phone
lines.
It
was
the
age
when notion of time being relative to the motion of an
electromechanical devices were starting to be observer, assuming constant speed of light. One used to synchronise distant clocks. From the particularly important thought experiment for comfort of the patent office, a young Albert Ein‐ this paper was about a moving magnet and a stein was again thinking through the subtleties of conductor. For this, it was vital to understand measuring time.
electromagnetic induction—a phenomenon that
After finishing his studies in 1900, Einstein frequently appeared in his patents. could not get accepted anywhere for a teaching
Armed with a detailed knowledge of the
post. Eventually he was offered a job by his patent process (see figure), Einstein spent his friend’s father at a Swiss patent office in 1902, fragments of spare time inventing, and filed over where Einstein’s task was to look through inven‐ 50 patents during his life. Try a quick Internet tions, check their originality, and write clear pat‐ search of Google Patents for ones by Albert Ein‐ ents to protect the inventors’ new ideas. His job stein. Several interesting titles and illustrations
“Einstein described the patent office as his ‘worldly cloister’, where he ‘hatched [his] most beautiful ideas’”
come up, from Light-intensity self-adjusting camera to Refrigeration. There is even a Design for a blouse, which has two methods of button‐ ing —who knew fashion and physics could inter‐ sect? Einstein believed that ‘the origin of all technical achievements is the divine curiosity and the play instinct of the working and think‐ ing researcher, as well as the constructive fantasy
lasted from 1902 to 1909, during which time of the technical inventor’. Yet as well as the joy Einstein published his four Annus Mirabilis (mir‐ of inventing, Einstein had some more practical acle year) 1905 papers. Einstein described the motivations: by selling the rights for the patents patent office as his ‘worldly cloister’, where he to companies such as Electrolux, he made extra ‘hatched [his] most beautiful ideas’. Many historians speculate that the numerous
money to fund his research. While Einstein’s patents did not become
patents Einstein analysed, relating to the electro- commercialised during his lifetime, his Refriger‐ 6
