Einstein to Princeton

Fussy Frau Albert Einstein manages her fuzzy-crowned husband much as a hen does a bewildered chick. Worrying lately about his health, she wished to have him examined, was able to only by a trick: she got a doctor to show Dr. Einstein a sphygmomanometer. Inquisitive, he fiddled with it to see how it worked, had his blood pressure counted before he knew it. Examination showed Dr. Einstein no more unhealthy than the average sedentary person. But last fortnight, aboard the S. S. Westernland en route to the U. S., he felt unwell, was obliged to keep to his cabin one evening. When he reappeared next morning, visitors approached to ask questions. Dr. Einstein explored an egg, said nothing. Thereafter Frau Einstein had all she could do to shield him from strangers.

So did officials of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N. J., whither the Einsteins were bound. When the Westernland entered New York Harbor it was met by a tugboat chartered by two of the Institute's trustees, Lawyer Herbert Maass and Edgar S. Bamberger, retired vice president of the famed Newark department store. With them they had a customs inspector, to get the Einsteins quietly off the ship. They had forgotten to bring an immigration officer. While they waited, news cameramen managed to snap the Einsteins--the Herr Doktor, bewildered, trying to shield himself by waving his violin case, his wife resolutely crying: "No! No! No! No interviews!" At length the Einsteins climbed into the tug, chuffed off to the Battery where an automobile waited to take them to Princeton. Meanwhile, on the Westernland's pier, orchid-raising Lawyer Samuel Untermyer stood with a bouquet of his blooms as head of a welcoming committee appointed by bumbling Mayor John Patrick O'Brien.

At Princeton a small, brown-shingled house had been leased for the Einsteins, near the homes of the late Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson, Henry van Dyke and John Grier Hibben. First thing Dr. Einstein did was stroll hatless down Princeton's Nassau (main) St., enter a 5-c--&-10-c- store to buy a comb and scissors. Then he bought two newspapers, listened attentively and smoked his pipe while his associate, Dr. Walther Mayer, translated the news aloud. Next morning the Press assembled, at the invitation of Princeton's publicity department, for photographs. At length it was announced that Dr. Einstein could not be induced to appear. Later he changed his mind, let three cameramen photograph him.

The $5,000,000 Institute (given by two of the Bamberger family) had already opened three weeks ago, with three professors, three assistants and 16 students. Organized and directed by Dr. Abraham Flexner, it is the loftiest-browed of all U. S. institutions, open only to highly-qualified Ph. D.-possessors. Tuition costs a mere $100 for the six-month year. Princeton has loaned its new Henry Burchard Fine Mathematical Hall, a Gothic building one of whose leaded windows records Einstein's relativity formula and whose common-room fireplace bears the Einstein adage: "God is clever, but not malicious." Princeton University and the Institute collaborate as much as possible, such as in conducting a Mathematics Club and in issuing the Annals of Mathematics. Some day the Institute will take political science and economics in its stride. Last year it gave a seminar under able Professor Oswald Veblen. The principal subjects studied were: "The relation of generalized projective geometry to classical projective geometry, projective relativity, the theory of spinors,* conformal geometry and its relation to unitary field theory." This year, with the Institute officially opened, the Veblen seminar's range is to be widened, with Hungarian Professor John von Neumann as extra teacher. Dr. Einstein will discuss the theory of spinors and their application to field theory. Dr. Mayer will lead an advanced seminar. Professor James Waddell Alexander will lecture on combinatorial analysis situs, hold seminars on the applications of algebra and group theory to topology. ^

* Spinor = an equation descriptive of the whirling of a mass.

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