Relativity Timelines...

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Relativity Timelines

1638: Descartes (1596-1650) publishes the 'Dioptrics'. He presented an
idea of the ether as the carrier of light.

1678: Huygens (1629-1695) explains reflection, refraction and double
refraction of light as consistent with the wave theory of light.

1801: Young (1773-1829) adds interference to the evidence in favour of
the wave theory. (Bakerian Lecture 12/11/1801 Royal Society of London:
'The Theory of Light and Colours')

1817: Fresnel (1788-1827) and Arago (1786-1853) conclude that light
must travel via transverse waves following their experiments with
polarisation.

1821: Fresnel (1788-1827) publishes a paper confirming that light is a
transverse wave.

1842: Doppler (1803-1853) presented the paper 'On the coloured light
of the double stars and certain other stars of the
heavens' (C.Doppler: 'Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne und
einiger anderer Gestirne des Himmels', Abh.königl.böhm.Ges.Wiss. 2,
465-482, 1843). It defined the Doppler Effect, a principle according
to which the motion of source and observer affect the speed of light
and sound.

1873: Maxwell (1831-1879) publishes the 'Treatise on Electricity and
Magnetism'. He is the first scientist to propose the constancy of
light. His electrodynamic formulas, known as Maxwell’s equations,
incorporate c as a constant i.e. c=1/sqrt(KeKh) where Ke is the
electric field constant and Kh is the magnetic field constant.

1878: Maxwell (1831-1879) writes an article for Encyclopaedia
Britannica in which he describes how light is propagated as a
transverse wave and transmitted by the ether. In the article, he
suggests an experiment to determine the velocity of the earth through
the ether by splitting a ray of light and sending the two resulting
rays at right angles to each other. If reflected and recombined, they
should visibly interfere.

1881: Michelson (1852-1931) conducts the experiment suggested by
Maxwell by using an interferometer. He reports after the experiment:
'….The interpretation of these results is that there is no
displacement of the interference bands. ... The hypothesis of the
stationary aether is thus shown to be incorrect.' (A. A. Michelson,
Am. J. Sci, 122, 120; 1881).

1886: Lorentz (1853-1928), believing in the ether, criticises
Michelson's experiment in the paper 'On the Influence of the Earth's
Motion on Luminiferous Phenomena'.

1887: Michelson (1852-1931) and Morley (1838-1923) repeat the
experiment, again reporting that no effect of the movement of the
earth through the aether had been found. (A. A. Michelson and E. W.
Morley, Am. J. Sci. 34, 333; 1887).

1887: Voigt (1850–1919) publishes a paper 'On Doppler's
Principle' ('Ueber das Doppler'sche Prinzip', Nachr. Ges. Wiss.
Goettingen 2, 1887). The paper contains the Voigt transformations. In
modern notation they were:

x' = x - vt, y' = y/g, z' = z/g, t' = t - vx/c2
g = gamma = sqrt(1-vv/cc)

Multiplying the right-hand sides of the equations by g give the
Lorentz transformations.
Voigt corresponds in 1887 and 1888 with Lorentz about the Michelson-
Morley experiment.

1888: Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925) publishes the contraction formula
that now bears Lorentz's name in "The Electrician".

1889: Hertz (1857-1894) publishes 'About basic equations of the
electrodynamics of moving bodies'. Hertz confirmed by experiments
Maxwells's theory that electromagnetic waves and light are one and the
same phenomenon. He demonstrated that electromagnetic waves can be
emitted from wires into free space. He also modified Maxwell's
equations to allow for the null result of the Michelson-Morley
experiment.

1889: Fitzgerald (1851-1901) publishes a short paper 'The Ether and
the Earth's Atmosphere', Science, 13, 390. He points out that the
results of the Michelson-Morley experiment could be explained only if
‘... the length of material bodies changes, according as they are
moving through the ether or across it, by an amount depending on the
square of the ratio of their velocities to that of light’.

1890: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes 'Electrodynamic basics for moving
bodies' (‘Ueber die Grundlagen der Elektrodynamik für bewegte Körper’,
Ann. Phys. Chem. 15, 478-480, 1890).

1892: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes 'Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory
applied to moving bodies 'La théorie électromagnétique de Maxwell et
son application aux corps mouvants’, Archives Néerlandaises des
Sciences Exactes et Naturelles.

1892: Lorentz (1853-1928) proposes contraction in a paper ‘The
relative motion of the earth and the ether’ Versl.Kon.Akad.Wetensch.
1, 74.

1897: Larmor, J. (1857-1942) publishes ‘On a dynamical theory of the
electric and luminiferous medium’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. 190, 205–300
(third and last in a series of papers with the same name).

1898: Larmor J. (1857-1942) writes down the 'Lorentz' transformations
in an article and shows that the FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction is a
consequence. He corresponded with Fitzgerald.

1898 Poincare (1854-1912) deals with the issue of simultaneity in his
paper 'Measurement of Time'.

1899: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes the 'Lorentz' transformations, the
third man to do it (after Voigt and Larmor). His paper describes the
increase of mass, the shortening of length, and the time dilation of a
body moving at speeds close to the velocity of light.

1900: Larmor (1857-1942) publishes 'Aether and Matter' (Cambridge
University Press, New York, 1900).

1900: Poincaré, H. (1854-1912) publishes ‘La theorie de Lorentz et la
Principe de Reaction’, Archives Neerlandaies, V, 253–78.

1902: Lorentz (1853-1928) receives the Nobel prize in Physics.

1903: F. T. Trouton and H. R. Noble publish ‘The mechanical forces
acting on a charged electric condenser moving through space,’ Phil.
Trans. Royal Soc. A 202, 165–181. Unsuccesful attempt to detect motion
of the earth through the ether.

1904: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes a paper 'Electromagnetic Phenomena
in a System Moving with any Velocity less than that of
Light' (Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Amsterdam, 6p. 809,
1904). It contains concepts of ‘Local Time’.

1904: Poincaré (1854-1912) states at the St Louis (USA) exhibition in
1904: '. . . the principle of relativity, according to which the laws
of physical phenomena should be the same, whether for an observer
fixed, or for an observer carried along in a uniform movement of
translation, so that we have not or could not have any means of
discerning whether or not we are carried along in such a motion.'

1904: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes the paper ‘Electromagnetic
Phenomena in a System Moving with Any Velocity Less than that of
Light’. It is considered the origin of the Lorentz ether theory
(LET).

1905: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes 'Attempt of a Theory of Electrical
and Optical Phenomena in Moving Bodies' (‘Versuch einer Theorie der
elektrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Körpern’).

1905, 5th June: Poincaré (1854-1912) presents his work ‘Sur la
dynamique de l'electron’.

1905, 30th June: Einstein (1879-1955) publishes his first paper on
relativity 'On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies' (‘Zur
Elektrodynamik bewegter Koerper’ Annalen der Physik 17:891, 1905).
Einstein gives no references but mentions Maxwell, Hertz, Doppler and
Planck. He states in the footnotes that 'the preceding memoir of
Lorentz was not at this time known to the author'.

1907: Einstein writes in Annalen der Physik: ‘Über eine Möglichkeit
einer Prüfung des Relativitätsprinzips’, ‘Of the possibility of a
verification of the principle of relativity’.

1907: Michelson (1852-1931) receives the Nobel prize in Physics.

1908: Planck (1858-1947) publishes a paper on relativity.

1908: Minkowski (1864-1909) presents a paper (‘Raum und Zeit’) on
relativity expounding the Lorentz equations in tensor form at the
Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher in Cologne. Later published in
Physikalische Zeitschrift 10 104-111 (1909) and Jahresbericht der
Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung 18 75-88 (1909).
1908/1909: Ritz, W. publishes comments on difficulties with
relativity. 1908: ‘Recherches Critiques Sur L'Electrodynamique
Generale’ Ann. de Chim. et de Phys3, 145 . 1909: ‘La gravitation’
Scientia, 10, 2.

1909: Ritz, W., and A. Einstein publish ‘The Ritz-Einstein Agreement
to Disagree’ Phys. Zeits.,10, 323.

1909: Poincaré (1854-1912) lectures at Goettingen University on
Relativity. He ignores Einstein’s work.

1909: Lorentz (1853-1928) publishes the book ‘The theory of
electrons’. He acknowledges the work of Voigt.

1909: Paul Ehrenfest (1880-1933) points out difficulties with Special
Relativity (SR). He is the author of the Ehrenfest paradox which
covers a problem in relativity. (Phys. Z., 10, 918).

1912: Lorentz (1853-1928) and Einstein (1879-1955) are jointly
recommended by the physicist Wien (1864-1928) for a Nobel prize for
their work on special relativity. Wien: ‘... While Lorentz must be
considered as the first to have found the mathematical content of the
relativity principle, Einstein succeeded in reducing it to a simple
principle. One should therefore assess the merits of both
investigators as being comparable...’.

1913: Georges Sagnac performs a ring interferometry experiment aimed
at observing the correlation of angular velocity and phase-shift. Its
purpose was to detect ‘the effect of the relative motion of the
ether’. He publishes ‘L'ether lumineux demontre par l'effet du vent
relatif d'ether dans un interferometre en rotation uniforme’ in
Comptes Rendus 157 S. 708-710 and ‘Sur la preuve de la réalité de
l'éther lumineux par l'expérience de l'interférographe tournant’ in
Comptes Rendus 157 S. 1410-1413.

1916: Einstein (1879-1955) publishes a book: ‘Relativity’. It is a
revision of his earlier papers and contains references to the Lorentz
transforms and the Michelson Morley experiment.

1918: Planck (1858-1947) receives the Nobel prize in Physics.

1921 Lorentz, H. A. (1853-1928) publishes ‘The Michelson-Morley
experiment and the dimensions of moving bodies’, Nature, 106,
793-795.

1921: Einstein (1879-1955) receives the Physics Nobel Prize but not
for relativity.

1923: A.H. Compton (1892-1962) publishes ‘A Quantum Theory of the
Scattering of X-Rays by Light Elements’ Phys Rev 21, 483-502. Comptons
x-ray scattering studies provided support for
both the particle nature of light and for Einstein's Theory of Special
Relativity.

1932: R. J. Kennedy and E. M. Thorndike publish ‘Experimental
Establishment of the Relativity of Time’, Physical Review. Series 2,
vol. 42, p.400-418. Their experiment was a modified form of the
Michelson-Morley experimental procedure. The modification is to make
one arm of the classical Michelson-Morley (MM) apparatus very short.
It served as a test for special relativity to verify time dilation:
according to special relativity, no phase shifts will be detected
while the earth moves around the sun, while such would result from
length contraction alone.

1938: Ives, H. E. and Stilwell, G. R. consider clock rates: ‘An
experimental study of the rate of a moving clock’, J. Opt. Soc. Am,
28, 215–226

1941: Ives, H. E. and Stilwell, G. R. revisit clocks: ‘An experimental
study of the rate of a moving clock. II’, J. Opt. Soc. Am, 31, 369–
374

1956: A. Einstein’s book ‘The Meaning of Relativity’, Fifth Edition,
Princeton University Press was published in the year after his death.

1958/1959: Penrose, R., "The Apparent Shape of a Relativistically
Moving Sphere", Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc., vol 55 Jul 1958 and Terrell,
J., "Invisibility of the Lorentz Contraction", Phys. Rev. vol 116 no.
4 pp. 1041-1045 (1959) became known for trying to photographically
demonstrate the effects of contraction. Their experiments were named
‘The Penrose-Terrell Rotation’.

1972: Haefele and Keating publish in Science Vol. 177 pg 166-170 an
experiment which
compares atomic clocks flown on commercial airliners around the world
in both directions.

Additions and corrections welcome.
Peter Riedt