Albert Einstein and Moscicki's Patent Application

摘要

Much was said and written during the 2005 World Year of Physics about Einstein's work in the Bern, Switzerland, Patent Office (Fig. 1). He took the post (Technical Expert 3rd Class) there after completing his studies at the Zurich Polytechnic (later called ETH) in 1900 and being unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain a university position. However, little seems to be known of the patent applications he examined during his five years at the office in Bern. This paper discusses one of those applications-one that was submitted by a rather remarkable individual.