Usually, when scientists test a theory, they get everything nicely under control. But in 1919, as the First World War was drawing down, the British astronomer and physicist Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington did not have that luxury. He was going to test Albert Einstein's theory of relativity at a solar eclipse thousands of miles from the nearest precision laboratory. This was not easy. ‘In journeying to observe a total eclipse of the Sun, the astronomer quits the usually staid course of his work and indulges in a heavy gamble with fortune,' wrote the young Eddington. For him, treacherous weather and war made true control even more difficult to attain.
Einstein's situation was unstable as well. Berlin, his scientific space, was increasingly messy. His lectures on relativity were postponed because the university lacked coal to heat the lecture hall. Temporarily in Zurich to deliver lectures, Einstein found a lack of interest there too; only 15 students registered to hear him speak about relativity – and the university cancelled the event.
Back in Berlin, it was hard to know that the war was over, and there would be no true peace until the warring countries could agree upon a binding treaty. The negotiations involved setting up the League of Nations, as well as dividing Africa and the Middle East into new colonial possessions. As the scientists pursued their work, victorious empires gobbled up ever more of the world.
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