Watch Makers

taykair

Member
Messages
363
Before I get to the point of this thread, I really need to tell you this story:


I read recently that there was an auction where one of the items was a journal written in the late 17th century by a Swiss watchmaker's apprentice named Johannes Schudel. It fetched a good price at the auction, not because Mr. Schudel was world-famous (he wasn't) or even famous in Switzerland (he wasn't that, either). To be honest, he wasn't all that well-known even in Bern, where he was born and where he died, likely of smallpox, at the tender age of 22 - only a little over two years after he had posted his last entry in his journal, which he had kept on a daily basis from the dusk of his nineteenth year in early spring of 1696 until the dawn of his twentieth year on Earth during the first week of winter of that same year.

The reason the journal brought such a high price at the auction is because it had once - it is believed - been in the possession of a young Albert Einstein. This was established by numerous pieces of note paper (27 in all) with notes written in Einstein's hand, found between some of the journal's pages. This was according to a board of three experts: One was a handwriting analyst. The second was an expert in 17th century antiquities. A biographer of Einstein completed the trio. There are also several (6 or 11, depending upon who says so - the board agreed on only 6) notes written by Einstein in the margins of the book. The board was in unanimous agreement as to all 27 of those scraps of paper, though. They were all genuine Einstein - age 17.

Considering the sensation associated with the discovery of previously unknown notes taken by a young (pre-famous) Einstein, it is not surprising that Schudel's personal journal itself had been ignored.

The thing is: The journal had been pretty much ignored by almost everyone who has owned it since Schudel bit the dust. The family of one of Schudel's sisters owned it until 1807 - and perhaps lost it during a move (there is no record of a sale or indication that it was given away).

There have been only two other verified owners of the journal other than the time (a little over 40 years) in which it lay - unbid-upon and unwanted - in a warehouse owned by an auctioneer. The first was a gentleman named Mohen Von Allmen, who got it rather cheaply. The second was Albert Einstein, who possibly got it even more cheaply.

The reason Von Allmen bought the journal at all was because he was intrigued by the auction catalog's description of it as consisting primarily of the "rather complicated notes taken by one Herr Schudel, a watchmaker."

Mohen Von Allmen was a twelfth-generation resident of Innsbruck, Austria - and a rather wealthy man. He considered himself to be a rather well-educated man as well. (We know this because he kept a journal, too.) He was a rather upper-class fellow - maybe not a duke or a baron, but he nevertheless still got invited to their parties. As a scholar and a gentleman, he was expected to take an interest in the arts and sciences of his day, and it would seem that he actually did - when he wasn't attending or hosting fancy parties.

Von Allmen made an entry in his journal soon after his purchase which said that Schudel's journal was "the type of incomprehensible rubbish that is prevalent amongst the very young". Von Allmen seemed to dismiss the young apprentice watchmaker's notes altogether. Not just because of his age (after all Von Allmen himself, at the time of his purchase, was only 27), but also because Schudel was Swiss - and, therefore, not nearly so bright as an Austrian.

"At any rate, I for one do not believe their (meaning the Swiss') watches to be any better than a good quality watch made at Riegler's," Von Allmen concluded. Riegler's was a rather high-end shop in Vienna which made and sold timepieces.

The volume sat upon on one of Von Allmen's bookshelves for many years. In the summer of 1896, Von Allmen hired some additional help for one of his fancy parties. Among the temporary staff was the not-yet-confirmed-genius, Albert Einstein, who was working odd jobs to make some cash, and whose powerful intellect was put to use as a server of appetizers to Von Allmen's party guests.

Von Allmen, perhaps seeing something in the young man and desiring to grant him a bonus for a job well done, gave young Albert the journal of Johannes Schudel. That's one story. Another is that young Albert had sticky fingers and he filched it. Nobody really knows for sure.

The next time the journal is seen, it is part of a parcel of "miscellaneous articles from Prague" which was bought by Sotheby's in London in May of 1949. Apparently, the parcel languished in one of the many Sotheby's warehouses, unopened, until February of 2017. The employee of Sotheby's who finally did unpack the parcel and sort though it opened the journal to a random page when a phrase caught his attention.

The phrase was talking about the conversion of mass to energy, and contained some equations that seemed vaguely familiar to him, but which he lacked the expertise to evaluate. The employee took the journal to a friend at the British Museum. This person almost immediately recognized many of the equations and notes, even though they were not expressed with the same symbols that he was used to seeing in such equations, nor were the same expressions and labels which modern physics employs used.

The reason for the discrepancy was due to the fact - and this was the real news - that none of the equations or the notes which were later to become Einstein's theories were on any of the 27 scraps of paper or the 6 (or 11) marginal notes written by a 17-year old Einstein. Most of teen Albert's stuff consisted of various addresses, doodles, and parts of unfinished letters to friends. There was a bit of math, but it was used to jot down how much the family he was living with at the time had earned minus their personal and household expenses. In other words, a budget. That was as complicated as Albert's contribution got.

But the ideas behind Einstein's theories - and, with slight symbolic modification, the equations which we now use to express those theories - were there. They were originally written in 1696, by a 19-year old Swiss watchmaker's apprentice.

Even the famous E=mc2 (or, as expressed by Schudel, "vibratory excitations are the result of physicality multiplied many times by the speed of light rays.") is part of the journal, as are some of the "thought experiments" that have been credited to Einstein. It seems that Schudel, and not Albert Einstein, is the person responsible for...


Okay. I'm going to stop it right here - before even more damage is done. To those of you who have slogged through the story this far, I ask that you please read, at the very least, the next sentence.

All of the above story is a lie.

It is fiction. A fabrication. None of it happened. The only real character in that tissue of lies I just told you was Albert Einstein. The genius, Johannes Schudel, and the dandy, Von Allmen, never existed. Neither did that Sotheby's employee or his friend at the British Museum. There wasn't even a Reigler's shop in Vienna (at least, not that I know of). I made it all up.

Why did I do this? Well, why does anyone tell a lie - either online or off?

Because they can. And, in the case of internet liars, because they want to be noticed. They want to be followed. They want to feel superior.

They are unable to accomplish these things honestly, and so they lie. They invent histories. They hint at conspiracies. They claim to possess secret knowledge.

They are, in short, filled to the brim with bullshit.

They are "watchmakers" too, in a sense. But they don't make real watches, like my fictional Mr. Schudel. Instead, they make others watch them.

I wrote this post to remind all of you out there that, no matter how plausible a story you may read on this - or any other - site may sound to you, CHECK THE FACTS FOR YOURSELF. Don't take anybody's word about anything.

Except, of course, for mine. You can trust me. Really.
 
Messages
244
I enjoyed the story and your intended lesson.

Everyone should research, research, research. But like your lesson, even that could be layered in bullshit.

In the end we have critical thinking and common sense to use here on Earth.

Being spoon fed information without verifying (as best you can) is a very slippery slope.

Much love
 

taykair

Member
Messages
363
I enjoyed the story and your intended lesson.

Thank you.

The only thing that bothered me, as I was posting this, was the nagging thought that somebody out there (either out of ignorance or malicious intent) would repost the first part of my story elsewhere, and that it would be believed by some to be true.

There were more than a few glaring errors in the fabrication itself, yet that never seems to get in the way of some folk's desire to believe (and repeat) outlandish stories.
 


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