From Alan Wells
Your editorial on gravitational waves (22 March, p 5), reports Einstein as having worked as a “lowly clerk” at the Swiss Patent Office. In fact, he was working there as a “technical expert third class”, although that term would have been correctly translated as “patent clerk” in the US parlance of the time. In modern US and European parlance, as a government employee, he would properly be described as a “patent examiner”.
Back then, the Swiss Patent Office only examined patent applications relating to timing means. It is interesting to speculate whether the problems Einstein came across contributed to the genesis of his theory of relativity, which would make this period of his life more than the “gap year” impression given by your “lowly clerk” description.
Chichester, West Sussex, UK
