22 Art Manolea

Personalities from the Meridians of the Engineering Universe 99
PERSONALITIES FROM THE MERIDIANS OF THE ENGINEERING

UNIVERSE
Albert Einstein was born on the 14th of March In 1905, after a period of one hundred days, he
1879 in Ulm, Germany. His father, Hermann, was a published three articles, in different fields, but all
small enterpriser in the domain of electrical having a revolutionary importance for science. The
equipment, and his mother, Paulina, was a person in third one, On the electrodynamics of moving bodies
love with music. represented the first expression of what it was called
Albert had his later the special theory of relativity. The scientific
first violin world remained indifferent. Only after Mark Plank,
classes with her. who had already written the revolutionary theory of
He was six, but the quantum, invited Einstein at the University of
he kept on Berlin, the scientific community reacted and showed
playing the their astonishment: an examiner of inventions, of only
violin all his life: 26 years old, unknown, with no scientific titles, can
for his own not formulate a revolutionary theory! It was only in
pleasure, when 1919, during a total eclipse of sun, when the notes of
his experiments the astrologist Sir Arthur Eddington, confirmed
didn’t have the expected results or for philanthropic Einstein’s theories regarding the time relativity and
events. the space deformation. After this event Albert Einstein
History tells us that he didn’t utter any word became more and more famous all over the world. He
until he was three. Parents got worried, but to their was invited to deliver speeches at conferences all over
happiness and astonishment, he started to speak the world. In Japan he visited many cities, from north
fluently one day, using the vocabulary of an adult. He to south, including Hiroshima. In Germany, after
1921, Hitler became more and more powerful, and the
accumulated, analyzed and … communicated. He did
anti-Semitism extended. In these conditions it was
like this all his life. When he was 11 he started to
created a committee in Berlin for denigrating
attend a secondary school in Munich. In 1896 he
Einstein’s theories and which published the book One
applied for the Polytechnics of Zurich, one of the best
hundred of writers against Einstein. Einstein answered
universities during that time in order to get a diploma
to this book with only one sentence: “If my theories
as a physics teacher. He liked more the experimental are really full of errors, then all it is needed is only a
part of his teaching activity and this is why he was scientist to demonstrate this thing.” In 1933 he went to
spending a lot of hours in the lab. History tells us that America for ever. Although Einstein is known for his
he wanted to continue his activity in the labs of the theory of relativity, he received the Nobel Prize in
Polytechnics as an assistant, but, because of the 1921 for his contribution to the quantum theory from
antipathy of a professor, all his hopes vanished. He the second article written in 1905. The news was
took a job as a teacher in a secondary school, he gave brought to him during his return travel from Japan to
private lessons at home and published original theories America. He enjoyed the news with restraint. He
in scientific journals. Although his ideas were expected to be given the prize for the theory of
inedited, they weren’t paid any attention. He was relativity! His Fame involved him in the activity of
asking at that time: How would it be if we could President Franklin Roosevelt, trying to hurry the
control light and travel through it? One year after his construction of the atomic bomb which started “The
graduation, he defended his dissertation, but the Manhattan Program” for fabricating the atomic bomb
scientific committee not only that they weren’t before the Germans. As an irony, on the 6th of August
impressed by the subject, but also they didn’t give him 1945, he was in his house from Princeton and he heard
the diploma which would have allowed him to work. on the radio the news about launching the atomic
With the help of an acquaintance, he gets, from 1902, bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. He shouted
a job as a clerk at the Swiss Office for Patents. It is in vain “What a horror!” He remembered that during
supposed that the analysis and the classification of the his visit in Japan in 1923 he had declared: “If all
usage of several devices stimulated his preoccupations people of the world were so smiling as Japanese, we
related to space and time. He worked here for two would never have wars again!” He died on the 18th of
years. Although he had plenty of ideas, he could not April, 1955 in a hospital from Princeton, the USA. He
find any lab in which he could check his theories. died of heart failure and he was burnt in Trenton, New
Because of these conditions, he had to develop a Jersey, and his ashes was scattered in an unknown
method that he called “theoretical experiment”. place. Albert Einstein opened a new window for the
History says that when asked “Where is your lab?” he mankind! He loved children! He hated war! “I don’t
opened a drawer where there were a pen and a sheet of know what weapons will be used in World War III, but
paper and said “for the theoretical experiment all you in World War IV they will fight with sticks and
need is a pen and a sheet of paper”. stones.”
100 Personalities from the Meridians of the Engineering Universe
Alexandru Proca was encouraged him to get a job at this institute. Here he
born on the 16th of October, wrote his Ph.D. thesis that combined researches from
1897 in Bucharest, in a family of two top fields of physics: the theory of relativity
intellectuals. He graduated elaborated by Einstein and the theory of electrons
Gheorghe Lazar Highschool in elaborated by Dirac. In 1929 Albert Einstein delivered
1915. Although he chose the a conference at Henri Poincaré Institute, and
scientific qualification, he could Alexandru Proca was among very few invited at the
speak fluently French, English talks with Albert Einstein. The destiny wanted that the
and German at graduation. In the two men to meet in Paris: Einstein, the author of the
same year he started to attend theory of relativity and Proca who, as a student at the
the Faculty of Sciences, School of Polytechnics in Bucharest, had delivered
department of mathematics, but because of the some lectures about Einstein back in Romania. In
beginning of the war he attended only the first year. In 1933 he got his Ph.D. diploma in physics,
1917 he is enrolled, he attended the School for reserve demonstrating in this thesis the existence of some sub-
officers from Iaşi afterwards being sent to war as atomic particles, with positive or negative load, with a
engineer lieutenant, where he fought until June 1918 very short life and with a mass approximately two
when he was discharged. He restarted to attend The hundred times bigger than the mass of an electron. He
National School for Bridges and Roads, as a student, called these particle “mesons”. After obtaining these
and when this school was transformed into The School particles artificially in particle accelerators, Alexandru
of Polytechnics he chose the department of Proca became an indisputable authority in the study of
electromechanics. As a student he became known due mesons. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs form France
to his bright intelligence, due its intuition and general financed him one year grant in Berlin where he
view of technical phenomena. He preferred the worked together with the famous physicist
theoretical research, namely mathematics. When still a Schrödinger. Later, he worked in Copenhagen with
student, he collaborated with professors Tudor Niels Bohr. With the help of his theoretical research
Tănăsescu and E. Abason in order to write the Bulletin he established a link between the electromagnetic
of theoretical and applied mathematics and physics, theory and the quantum theory of the photon. During
published by the School of Polytechnics from 1936 – 1940, he extended Maxwell’s equations in
Bucharest. He delivered some lectures about the vacuum, writing the relativist equations of the boson
theory of relativity which had been made known by vectorial field that established his reputation
Einstein recently. He started his activity as engineer in completely and that are known in scientific world as
1922 at the Electrical Society in Câmpina, where he “Proca’s Equations”. He wanted to become a
worked only for a year, but where he managed to professor, but his attempts to get a teaching load were
begin the implementation of the electrical equipment defeated by the envy of the most important people
for oil and mining gears. The results were presented in during that period who could not accept their theories
the paper “The Use of Electricity in oil Industry” to be contradicted by Alexandru Proca’s scientific
published in 1924. At the same time he started his proofs. It was only in the summer of 1943 when he
teaching career as an assistant at the Department of managed to teach the course on theoretical physics at
Electricity and Electrotechnics. the University of Porto, Portugal. Although he was the
He was keen on the theoretical study of first person who proved the existence of mesons
physical phenomena and, in 1925, he was sent to before the Japanese Hideki Yukava, the latter received
University of Sorbona, Faculty of Sciences. Although the Nobel Prize for physics in 1949. Although he
he had to attend all the courses he graduated until received a lot of praises for his valuable work, he was
1928, namely in less than three years, with an average affected by the injustices. He was unable to
mark of 17.50, the maximum average being 20. After understand the envy and the bad things coming from
defending his B.A. paper he was employed at the his fellows. He kept quiet. He suffered. His
Institute of Radium which was managed by the enthusiasm faded as well as his physical strength and
famous Marie Curie. Here is what Marie Curie was he got ill. At the beginning of 1953 he was diagnosed
saying about Alexandru Proca: “Every time when I with throat cancer. He kept on fighting. He fought
have a difficult scientific problem, that needs a lot of writing. His last article was written on the 18th of
patience, competence, experimental ability and October, 1955. After two months, on the 13th
meticulousness I go to Mr. Proca. Every time he December 1955, the disease killed him. He was 58. In
provides solutions that I like, that satisfy me and the 1990 he was chosen the honored member of The
results are always very precise. You, Romanians, can Romanian Academy post-mortem.
be proud that you have a scientific researcher as Column written by professor Gheorghe Manolea,
valuable as Mr. Proca.” During that time the Institute Ph.D. from University of Craiova, Doctor Honoris
of Mathematics “Henri Poincaré” for promoting the Causa of the Technical University of Moldavia,
theoretical physics in France was set up. Marie Curie Chişinău

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Personalities from the Meridians of the Engineering Universe 99

PERSONALITIES FROM THE MERIDIANS OF THE ENGINEERING

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