Caputh, near Berlin, 1 March 1931

Name: Speculation on the age of the universe
Brand: Caputh, near Berlin, 1 March 1931
Price: 40000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised USD 50,000

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USD 6,000 - USD 9,000

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Speculation on the age of the universe

Caputh, near Berlin, 1 March 1931

Price Realised USD 50,000

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Albert Einstein (1879-1955). Typed letter signed (‘A. Einstein’) to Michele Besso, n.p., 1 March 1931.

In German, one page, 278 x 214mm, on paper with printed heading of ‘Professor Albert Einstein’.

Please note this is the property of a private consignor.

Published in Pierre Speziali (ed.) Albert Einstein. Michele Besso. Correspondance 1903-1955. Paris: Hermann, 1972. No. 108 (erroneously described as signed with initials only)

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Lot Essay

A trip to America has been very interesting, although tiring: 'The people at the Mount Wilson observatory are excellent. They have recently discovered that the spiral nebulas are almost equally distributed in space and show a powerful Doppler effect in proportion to their distance, which incidentally follows easily from the theory of relativity ... The snag is however that the expansion of matter suggests an origin in time going back 10 or 10 years. Because any other explanation of the effect runs into great difficulties, the situation is very exciting'. Einstein is impressed by Besso's proposal for a toxicological institute, and suggests that he forward it, with Einstein's recommendation, to the in Paris.