One of France’s oldest science museums, the Ampère Museum, has just revealed a treasure hidden in its reserves: the only complete and authentic version of the Einstein-de Haas experiment, a rare experimental work published by Albert Einstein himself.
This extraordinary discovery, the result of research by Alfonso San Miguel, a researcher at the Institut Lumière Matière – iLM (Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University / CNRS), in partnership with Bernard Pallandre, a volunteer curator at the museum, is detailed in an upcoming article in Europhysics News.
The invaluable experimental apparatus recently found at the Ampère Museum near Lyon is the only fundamental research experimental work published by Albert Einstein. In 1915, together with the Dutch physicist Wander de Haas, it allowed him to demonstrate the existence of Ampère’s molecular currents.
This prediction unified the understanding of certain magnetic phenomena and contributed to the understanding of orbiting electrons, marking a key moment in the history of physics.
Several months of research were necessary to make this discovery, led by Alfonso San Miguel, a researcher at iLM and also President of the Société des Amis d’André-Marie Ampère, an association that has managed the Ampère Museum since its creation in 1931.
In collaboration with Bernard Pallandre, a volunteer curator at the museum, they were able to trace the object through letters and other texts, until they found and authenticated the experiment, donated by Mrs. de Haas in the late fifties.
We unearthed old documents indicating that Mrs. de Haas, who was also a physicist, had given us an original version of the famous Einstein-de Haas experiment, the only one on which Einstein, that great theorist, had published. After several months of searching and several twists and turns, we finally found the object in the museum’s reserves on March 7, 2023. The object had never been inventoried. It took a few more months to authenticate it and be certain that we had found the only complete copy of the only experiment that Einstein had experimented with and published, explains Alfonso San Miguel.
This find from the reserves of the Ampère Museum revives a crucial chapter in our scientific heritage, linking past and present in an extraordinary way. In an article to be published in Europhysics News, A. San Miguel and B. Pallandre present the object that allowed Einstein and de Haas to concretely demonstrate the existence of electron orbits through a visible oscillatory motion.
The discovered object and modern interactive models will be exhibited from mid-April at the Ampère Museum.
Sources
CNRS | Alfonso San Miguel, Bernard Pallandre, Revisiting the Einstein-de Haas Experiment: the Ampère Museum’s Hidden Treasure
- Share on:
Discover more from LBV Magazine English Edition
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Black Panthers: The African American Soldiers of the 761st Tank Battalion Who Fought at the Battle of the Bulge
They made a good first impression, but I have no faith in the inherent fighting ability of the race. This was what General Patton declared after inspecting the 761st Tank…
Secret Underground Passages Described in Leonardo da Vinci’s Sketches Discovered Beneath Milan’s Sforza Castle
As part of a doctoral thesis, the prestigious Politecnico di Milano has conducted a pioneering technological study that has uncovered hidden secrets beneath the Sforza Castle, one of Milan’s most…
Archaeologists Find Evidence That Kurd Qaburstan Could Be the Ancient City of Qabra, Mentioned in Babylonian Inscriptions
The archaeological site of Kurd Qaburstan, located in the Erbil region of northeastern Iraq, has emerged as an invaluable source of knowledge about the Middle Bronze Age Mesopotamian civilization. Recent…
Human Footprints from the Bronze Age Left by People Fleeing a Vesuvian Eruption and Other Extraordinary Discoveries in Campania
During improvement works on the Diramazione Nocera-Cava dei Tirreni gas pipeline in the municipalities of Nocera Superiore, Nocera Inferiore, Roccapiemonte, and Castel San Giorgio (province of Salerno, Campania) in Italy,…
Herzgruft, the Crypt in Vienna Where the Hearts of the Habsburgs Are Preserved
Saying that the heart of the Habsburgs is in Vienna may sound like a poetic expression to embellish a historical fact, but it can be taken literally if one visits…
Analysis of Fingerprints on Figurines Recovered in Heracleion Reveals Women and Children also Made them
An archaeological study published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology by Leonie Hoff analyzes the fingerprints impressed on terracotta figurines found in the ancient city of Thonis-Heracleion in Egypt (located…
The Oldest Neolithic Settlement of France’s First Farmers, Discovered on the French Riviera
Described as a rare find by the regional archaeology department, one of the oldest Neolithic settlements in France, attributed to the Early Cardial period, is currently being excavated by archaeologists…
A Large Ritual Structure Discovered in Jerusalem with 8 Rock-Cut Rooms and Mysterious V-Shaped Marks on the Floor
A remarkable archaeological find has come to light on the eastern slope of the City of David, within the Walls of Jerusalem National Park. This unique structure, spanning approximately 220…
The Incredible Wrangel Island: The Place Where Mammoths Survived Until 2000 BC
Located in the Arctic Ocean, between the Chukchi Sea and the East Siberian Sea, Wrangel Island is a 7,600 km² enclave, equivalent in size to Crete. It is part of…
How Ashurbanipal Destroyed Babylon, Whose King Was His Own Elder Brother
And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…” Revelation, 14:08 This verse from the Bible likely sounds familiar to many; it refers to the conquest of…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
