Albert Einstein (1879-1955).

Typed letter signed (‘A. Einstein’) to Erik Larsen, Nassau Point, Peconic, Long Island, 1 July 1938.

In German. One page, 278 x 215mm; with a retained annotated typescript copy of Larsen’s letter to Einstein. Provenance: collection of Carl-Gustav Danver (1908-1994, astronomer, attached to Lund University); sale at Bukowski, Stockholm, 4-5 June 2019, lot 166A (part).

When is a hypothesis valuable? ‘It is not clear to me what goal you wish to attain with your investigation. The association of previously unconnected facts through arbitrary hypotheses is only valuable if the hypotheses taken as a whole are simpler than the facts which they help to represent. / By way of comparison: a representation of 7 magnitudes through 5 magnitudes indicates an insight, whereas a representation of 5 through 7 does not. / What is the advance in knowledge that you seek through your reflection?’.

Larsen’s letter to Einstein sets out a hypothesis which aims to ‘determine the field of force of the spiral nebulae and their evolution from a rotation ellipsoid to a double-branched spiral’.

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