Scott A. Walter

Figures of light in the early history of relativity (1905-1914)

Albert Einsteins bold assertion of the form-invariance of the equation of a spherical light wave with respect to inertial frames of reference (1905) became, in the space of six years, the preferred foundation of his theory of relativity. Early on, however, Einsteins universal light-sphere invariance was challenged on epistemological grounds by Henri Poincare, who promoted an alternative demonstration of the foundations of relativity theory based on the notion of a light-ellipsoid. Drawing in part on archival sources, this paper shows how an informal, international group of physicists, mathematicians, and engineers, including Einstein, Poincare, Hermann Minkowski, Ebenezer Cunningham, Harry Bateman, Otto Berg, Max Laue, A. A. Robb, and Ludwig Silberstein, employed figures of light during the formative years of relativity theory in their discovery of the salient features of the relativistic worldview.