Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time 1st Edition

by Peter Galison (Author)

24 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0393020014

ISBN-10: 0393020010

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"More than a history of science; it is a tour de force in the genre."―New York Times Book Review

A dramatic new account of the parallel quests to harness time that culminated in the revolutionary science of relativity, Einstein's Clocks, Poincaré's Maps is "part history, part science, part adventure, part biography, part meditation on the meaning of modernity....In Galison's telling of science, the meters and wires and epoxy and solder come alive as characters, along with physicists, engineers, technicians and others....Galison has unearthed fascinating material" (New York Times).

Clocks and trains, telegraphs and colonial conquest: the challenges of the late nineteenth century were an indispensable real-world background to the enormous theoretical breakthrough of relativity. And two giants at the foundations of modern science were converging, step-by-step, on the answer: Albert Einstein, an young, obscure German physicist experimenting with measuring time using telegraph networks and with the coordination of clocks at train stations; and the renowned mathematician Henri Poincaré, president of the French Bureau of Longitude, mapping time coordinates across continents. Each found that to understand the newly global world, he had to determine whether there existed a pure time in which simultaneity was absolute or whether time was relative.

Esteemed historian of science Peter Galison has culled new information from rarely seen photographs, forgotten patents, and unexplored archives to tell the fascinating story of two scientists whose concrete, professional preoccupations engaged them in a silent race toward a theory that would conquer the empire of time. 40 b/w illustrations

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harvard historian of science Galison approaches our understanding of time at the beginning of the 20th century through two related dimensions. The first, extremely practical perspective focuses on our ability to accept a common definition of time at various locations. Before our current system of time zones existed, time was a local construct, making it extremely difficult to coordinate events, have trains run smoothly or determine longitude. The second, far more theoretical perspective deals with the basic laws of physics and addresses the question: is time absolute or relative? Galison focuses his narrative through the eyes of the two scientists most responsible for crafting our present understanding of time, Albert Einstein and Henri Poincare. While Einstein needs no introduction, the less well-known Poincare does. He was one of the world's most renowned mathematicians and president of the French Bureau of Longitude. Galison explains how, in the case of each of these scientists, the practical dimension helped shape their understanding of the theoretical dimension, and, in turn, how they helped transform the world. Although Galison's material is of great interest, his writing is often obtuse and overly technical, making the book's ideas less accessible to a general audience. 46 illus.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Scientific American

Two scientists closed in on one groundbreaking theory. Poincaré posited something so close to Einstein's theory of relativity that it is surprising in retrospect he did not take the final step. The story is told in this new (paperbound) edition of a book that appeared in 2003. Described then as "absolutely brilliant," "a stroke of genius," "fresh, idiosyncratic," and "meticulously detailed ... perhaps the most sophisticated history of science ever attempted in a popular science book," it is all of the above, but it is not for the intellectually faint of heart.

Editors of Scientific American

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Product details

Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (August 17, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393020010
ISBN-13: 978-0393020014
Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.4 x 8.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 24 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #293,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1673 in History & Philosophy of Science
- #90 in Physics of Time (Books)
- #141 in Relativity Physics (Books)

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Bruce Loveitt

Clockwatchers

September 22, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

In this book, Peter Galison attempts to show that scientists and mathematicians, no matter how brilliant, do not work in a vacuum. The focus is more on Henri Poincare than Albert Einstein, although Einstein is certainly not slighted. It's just that Mr. Galison feels, at least as far as the general public is concerned, Poincare has been "slighted,"....and this book, in part, is an attempt to redress the situation. It is easy to think of mathematicians and physicists as being disconnected from the "real world." Mr. Galison wants to show us, however, that they are influenced heavily by their colleagues in the scientific community and, more generally, by the culture they are part of. Thus, Poincare (president of the French Bureau of Longitude) was a creature of his times: he was "formed" by his education at the Ecole Polytechnique, with its emphasis on combining theory with practice. He was a man who "networked," and constantly exchanged ideas with fellow mathematicians and scientists. As a Frenchman, he shared in the humiliation of the French defeat at the hands of the Prussians in the war of 1870. Thus, it was important for France to lead the way in the longitudinal mapping of the planet (which required the synchronization of clocks across great distances). This longitudinal mapping was important for war and peace (for moving armies and navies...and oceangoing commerce). Synchronized clocks, even apart from their relationship to longitude, were also important for other reasons- such as for regulating railroad schedules. Mr. Galison's point: time was in the air and, since the outlook was global, there was an understanding that time was relative rather than absolute. Mr. Galison is not trying to say that Poincare "invented" the Theory of Special Relativity. What he is trying to say is that the obsession with time was "in the ether." Einstein, in Switzerland, was not immune to these influences. Which brings us to, for me, anyway, the most interesting part of the book - the relationship between Einstein's work at the Bern patent office (both the specifics and the methodology). People were constantly trying to come up with better ways of synchronizing clocks, and Einstein saw many of these patent applications. Also, it was his job to evaluate patent applications. The patent application (amongst other things) has to show that you've come up with something original, and it also has to show clearly how the invention will work. Mr. Galison makes a convincing argument that Einstein's job, at the very least, kept him thinking about the synchronization (and, hence, the relativity) of time. Even more interesting, in his 1905 paper on Special Relativity, Einstein did not use footnotes or make references to other scientists. Mr. Galison speculates: was this arrogance on Einstein's part, or was he influenced by his work at the patent office? In other words, it wouldn't help your case if, in a patent application, you showed how your idea was based on other ideas. You needed to show you had come up with something new. Regarding patents and practicality, Einstein, in his 1905 paper, included "thought experiments" to show how his theory should function in the real world. Let me stress that Mr. Galison is not trying to downplay Einstein's brilliance. He is trying to show that everyone is affected by what is going on around them - no exceptions granted. Mr. Galison is also keen to show us the differences in the working methods of the two men. Einstein was a bit of a rebel - he enjoyed overturning the apple cart. Hence he was not reluctant to discard theories he had no use for. Poincare believed more in building on what came before him, and in reaching consensus. According to Mr. Galison, this makes Poincare appear conservative- but this isn't so. He was a brilliant man, but just not as radical as Einstein. To paraphrase an analogy the author uses, Pablo Picasso may not have been Jackson Pollock, but this didn't make Picasso conservative. One caveat concerning the book: it is certainly not for the beginner. Mr. Galison's explanations and diagrams are clear and concise. However, since I don't have much of a background in math, I found the sections on Poincare to be tough-sledding. I have previously done some reading on relativity, so I found the sections on Einstein to be a bit easier to get through. So, just be aware that the author is expecting that you have some familiarity with what he is talking about. That caveat aside, I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

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Brian

Five Stars

October 26, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

good read

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Donald E. Malvin

Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Too Much of a good thing

September 28, 2003

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

With a life long fascination toward those things mathematical, scientific and historical, I approached Peter Galison's book with happy expectations. Investing three days in its reading and finding much new material of interest, I have no problem with Mr. Galison's credentials as a scholar and historian of science.
Sadly, what is admirable regarding his book has been seriously compromised by Galison's maddening redundancy and deluge of verbosity. How many times need he remind us that Poincare was trained at the Ecole Polytechnique and headed the Bureau des Longitudes, or that Einstein was more than just a clerk at the Swiss Patent Office where he received valuable experience regarding clock synchronization?
Though some reviewers found the book overly technical, I would have appreciated more detail in the thoughts and experiments of the two protagonists, as well as more information than was given regarding the contributions and lives of other significant players such as Minkowski, Maxwell, Lorentz and Mach.
While the notes, bibliography, and Galison's insights attest to his dedication and knowledge, the 328 pages of text, for what they contained, could easily have been reduced by 75 to 100 pages, if not more. I can only wonder if the author was simply churning out text to meet the obligations of a book contract. Besides being personally frustrating --because I truly appreciated much of what he presented-- this excess, as I forced myself to read through the final pages, became laughable. Before he publishes his next book, I strongly suggest Gallison take a freshman course in journalism at his university, Harvard, so that he might be more sensitive to the literary advantages of trimming the fat!

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David MilliernTop Contributor: Chess

A Very Different Look at Einstein

March 16, 2013

Format: Paperback

I am at a loss to explain all of the neutral and negative reviews this book has received. It is very easily one of the best books I have read in the past twelve months, and I read quite a lot. One reviewer asks what the book is about, and I find myself in complete shock. It's not as though the point isn't clear: Einstein was not the ethereal thinker (or as ethereal of a thinker) that modern media and scholarship paints him as. Galison builds a wonderful historical narrative that places Einstein in the gritty technological landscape of the late twentieth century, and adds detail to the physical in which Einstein conceived his ideas. Galison furthers his point by comparing and contrasting Einstein's context with that of Poincare, who had developed every but one piece of the puzzle special relativity. The work stands as, what I consider to be, exemplar of the high standards of HPS (History & Philosophy of Science) literature: it peers deeply into the science, presents a coherent (and an enjoyable) account of the times and goings-on, pays appropriate attention to philosophical influences which were so important to intellectual development of the science, and it is incredibly well-written. What's more, I think Galison has achieved a very, very difficult feat: he has made a book that bridges from an audience of scholarship, and is accessible to the reasonably intelligent layperson. The complaints about Galison's use of unfamiliar words can be simply defended by saying that Galison endeavors to employ precise language, insofar as he is capable. Besides, it makes for a more lively account; and being agitated by a bit of wordplay is just silly. If anything, reading this book from a popular audience standpoint, I want to read a book that is intelligently playful.

There is one major issue that potential readers may want to consider, and which has been complained about in other reviews, that Galison doesn't explain things below a particular level. Don't get this wrong, the book is by no means abstruse. However, Galison does assume a certain amount of knowledge about Einstein and the physics; but the physics is not so much that it cannot be grasped by someone who has read a basic work on special relativity. For example, reading Einstein's popular work, entitled "Relativity," or the special theory of relativity section of "Modern Physics" by Thornton and Rex, would give the reader sufficient background for the moderately technical information that is glossed over. For my part, not having read "Relativity" is like not having read "Romeo and Juliet," and I don't think such is too much to ask of anyone. It's a tougher read, but still geared toward a popular audience, and it is, after all, a watermark in human intellectual achievement, so I really can't empathize with the complaints. It is as though the general opinion is that every work of popular science must retell the same stories to pander the generally science-illiterate American audience, which I find an appalling, if true, opinion.

The one moderately decent criticism has been that Galison did not do enough to connect Einstein's thought to Poincare's, drawing the lines. I actually wrote a blog about this, for those interested (go to milliern_at_wordpress_dot_com and look for "Einstein, Poincare, and Kant: Between Galison and Yourgrau). To a certain extent, the criticism is valid, but Galison does a lot of writing to allow the active mind of the reader to draw many of the connections, which is not too much to ask. There are, I think, some things he needed to do better in explicitly drawing his lines, but, still, he has stimulated thought, so I see this as minor, on the whole. To counter the criticism with something that I really liked about the book, I think Poincare is overlooked far too much by historians of science and science history popularizers (except when it comes to math). One of the great minds of all times, Galison helps make visible this juggernaut who has been thoroughly overshadowed by Einstein.

This is a book I recommend to everyone who has read Walter Issacson's "Einstein" and Einstein's "Relativity," or have comparable experience with a biographical look at Einstein and pseudo-technical (popularized) knowledge of the physics.

(Spoiler Alert!: Don't read below this, if you don't want details about substance of the book.)

One last thing: For those who failed to see the point of the book, I want to let them in on the not-so-secretive secret. The idea of the title says it all, Galison's thinking being that what permitted Einstein to come up with his idea, even though Poincare had figured out how all but one of the puzzle pieces fit, was Einstein's practical mind and adherence to the practical (i.e. the clocks). By comparison, Galison is of the mind that Poincare's maps, being considerably more cerebral of a consideration, led Poincare away from solving the final conundrum that would have brought about a fully formed special theory of relativity. I disagree with this conclusion (see above-mentioned blog), even on the basis of the evidence presented by Galison.

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Einstein's Clocks, Poincare's Maps: Empires of Time 1st Edition