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Ernst Mach

1vocal among his "supporters." Thcy followcd Einstein under the im* pression that hc was Mach’s “succcssor." Their mistakc has hclpcd to confusc the history of science cven up to the present. Mach belicvcd in cxperimcntal physics. Ile rcjectcd theoretical physics, all thcoretical physics.³⁰ No theory could cver havc morę than provi$ional valuc in science.

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Lct us now digress for a few pages in order to place Machs thoughts on relativity within the context of the other conccrns that werc on his mind, and which, as wc shall soon discovcr, normally took prccc-dcnce.

Somctimcs happy things just happen. Robert H. Lowie dropped into Mach’s lifc from nowherc. He was born in Vicnna, brought up on talcs about American Indians, cmigratcd to America when hc was ten years old, and rcceivcd his doctor's degrcc in cthnology from Columbia Univcrsity in 1908. Lowics enthusiasm, and we must add nalve cxag-geration, was the pcrfect tonie to perk up a determined but battlc-weary Ernst Mach.

Lowie first wrote to Mach on March 8, 1911, informing him that the lattcr’s books had becomc a center of interest among a group of graduatc students at Columbia University.^M A sccond letter was ac-campanicd by an articlc, “A New Conccption of Totemism,” in which Lowie “had attempted to indicate the psychological affinity of modern American ethnological criticism with Mach’s aspirations in the field.”³² Mcanwhilc, the cxuberant young man sent iwo letters to Paul Carus prnising Mach in the highest terms. C;irus then sent Mach the letters. Thcy werc dated Novcmbcr 10 and 14, 1911: One letter said, “I greatly cnvy you the privilcge of mecting Mach, whorn I rcvcrc as the leader of a school that is at the same timc uncompromisingly radical and punctiliously critical of its own assumptions. . . . The other includcd: “My admiration for Mach is indeed vcry great, and I feel under the greatest obligations to him for clarifying my views as to scicntific con-ccpts and method.”

A month latcr, Lowie proposcd Mach’s namc for honorary member* ship in the New York Acadcmy of Science.³³ Lowie condudcd his nominating speech with the following words: "In presenting to your notice the namc of Ernst Mach, I proposc not mcrcly the greatest his*

torian of physics, not only an original cxpcrimcnter and thinkcr in the field of psycholog)’ and a keen logician of scientific method, but the founder and leader of a ncw and genuine scientific liberalism.”⁵⁴

Mach thanked Lowie for successfully obtaining the honorary mem-bership for him but was most pleascd by the articles and books that the Austro-Amcrican sent him. Robert M. Lowie was then an assistant curator at the American Muscum of Natural History in Ncw York and his spccial interest was travcling among Indian tribes, espccially in Canada and the Far West. Lowie sent Mach articles on the Assiniboine and particularly on the Crow Indians, ccrtain that the old physicist would cnjoy rcading about the tribes as much as Lowie enjoyed travel-ing among them and writing about them. And hc was right! Mach dcvcloped a whole new set of interests!

Lowic’s tendcncy to takc things for granted finally went a step too far. In May 1912, Mach had to dcclinc Lowic’s requc$t that he represent the Ncw York Academy of Science at the International Anthropology Congrcss soon to bc hcld in Gcncva. The scvcnty-four-year-old physicist had no choicc but to tell the cthnologist that hc was half paralyzed, could not leave his house and garden, and had not travclcd anywhcrc for ovcr thirteen years.³⁵

During 1911 and most of 1912 Mach was busy revising his Mechanics and Analysis of Sensations and working on his Principles of Physical Optics. At the same, howevcr, his sister Marie was finishing and publishing her autobiography, Re mem brance s of a Gouerness.³'¹ Her book, besides discussing her own adventures and interest in animals. also went into sonie dctail on the customs and habits of Slavic minori-ties in Montenegro, Bukovina, and other out-of-the-way places. In other words, her book further arouscd Machs interests in sociology and anthropology, espccially of primitive culturc groups.

By the spring ot 1913 Mach had put his uniinished Optics asidc and was activcly engaged in a new dircction. Ludwig Mach would do re-scarch in museums and libraries, Fclix Mach would prepare the dia-grams and drawings, Yictor Mach would give his father the benefit of his knowlcdgc about hand and machinę tooling of evcryday utcnsils, Mach’s w ile, Louise, would bathe, dothe, and help fced the seventy-fiveyear-old “project coordinator,” and Mach himself would wriie the book on the pre-history of mechanics. Mach wanted to describc how primitive man gradually learned to shape and use instruments and utcnsils. He deplorcd the lack of accuratc Information on such

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