Private Corner

Long before he moved from Germany to the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, Albert Einstein wrote an equation based on Planck's little constant h to explain how and why light falling on a metal kicks electrons out of the metal, setting up electric currents. This photoelectric effect is now familiar to laymen because it serves to open doors in restaurants and railway stations, operate drinking fountains.

Last week Washington's alert Science Service, browsing among the patent files, discovered that in his long search for a Unified Field Theory the great mathematician had not forgotten the uses of photoelectric cells. Patent No. 2,058,562, it appeared, had been issued to Dr. Albert Einstein and Gustav Bucky. Manhattan X-ray researcher, for an automatic device to prevent unskilled photographers from under-or over-exposing their plates.* A photoelectric cell attached to the camera measures the quantity of illumination available, adjusts a screen of varying transparency so that the proper amount of light is admitted to the lens when the shutter is operated. Cornered by newshawks in Princeton, Dr. Einstein was embarrassed, reticent. Snapped Dr. Bucky in Manhattan: ''A man must have some private corner in his life. You will excuse me, please."

* The photoelectric exposure meters used with minicameras are not automatic: they give a brightness reading from which the photographer must adjust his exposure time.

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