Spencer Heath Archive

Item 457

Page typed by Heath

No date

Through many years, among all the books explaining
Relativity, none caught my fancy with such great power as the one entitled Relativity Made Plain by Einstein and Infield. In my delight of anticipation, I hurried to the nearest bookseller and in almost breathless urge, demanded a copy of this wondrous elucidation, regardless of price. The good book-man quick­ly caught my gleam and placed in my hand a comely volume bearing on its cover the magic promise of Relativity Made Plain. Without asking the price, I handed the bookseller a twenty-dollar bill with which he repaired to the far end of his establishment to make the change. While he was gone I scanned the magic pages with such devouring eyes I scarcely noted his return. “Friend,” said I, “You have conferred on me a most precious boon. For these many years have I studied tome on tome seeking the relative light in which relatively would be plain, and now I have found it; for, turning its pages I find the promise of its title not only relatively but absolutely fulfilled. For every page shines bright and clear, unsullied by so much as a single sym­bol or sign, all absolutely and not merely relatively plain.” The bookseller motioned to seize the book, saying it was all a mistake in manufacture, but I resisted him, saying it was the first of them all that was not “manufactured,” the first in which zero really did equal zero and that he should keep the change. And so now I have the duly authorized version of relativity absolutely made plain.