The Impact of World War I on Relativity: A Progress Report
Virginia Trimble

TL;DR
This paper reviews how World War I affected the development of relativity, highlighting continued scientific progress despite wartime disruptions and the post-war resurgence of the field.
Contribution
It provides a detailed historical account of the impact of WWI on relativity research, including scientific collaborations and debates during and after the war.
Findings
Relativity research persisted during WWI despite disruptions.
Post-war period saw renewed interest and progress in relativity.
Scientific communication continued across wartime divides.
Abstract
From an astronomical and relativistic point of view, the Great War began with the August, 1914 capture and imprisonment of the members of a German eclipse expedition that had gone to the Crimea to look, at the request of Einstein, for bending of starlight by the sun. And it ended in 1919 with the Eddington-inspired measurements of that light bending from Principe and Sobral and with the founding of the International Astronomical Union by scientists from "the countries at war with the Central Powers." In between came unprecedented, and in some ways unequaled, death and destruction. The scientists lost were mostly too young to have made an impact (Henry Moseley and Karl Schwarzschild are exceptions), but many of the best-known of the next generation had, if citizens of the belligerent countries, served on the battle lines, and most of the rest contributed in some other way. It may come as…
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Taxonomy
TopicsHistory and Developments in Astronomy · Relativity and Gravitational Theory · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments
