Edmund T. Whittaker's second edition of his A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity is famous for his treatment of Einstein as an almost irrelevant character in the emergence of what he called "the relativity theory of Poincaré and Lorentz." Historians of science have given a number of explanations, which include Whittaker's scientific conservatism as an old classical physicist, his commitment to the ether, the pre-eminent role he attributed to mathematics over physics, and foundational philosophical disagreements, to name a few. And in the background, often more implicit than forthright, the accusation of antisemitism looms over Whittaker. In this paper I intend to shed new light on this controversy by taking into consideration the abundant correspondence between Whittaker and his son preserved in the archives of the Fisher Library, University of Toronto. With it, we will get a more complex and personal view of the context in which his attempt at dethroning Einstein took place. Together with the abovementioned reasons, this correspondence shows that the problematic status quo of general relativity in the early 1950s, a period that has been described as the low-mark of general relativity, was very influential in the historical treatment he gave to Einstein. This is an aspect hardly mentioned in the historical work on this controversy and, from this correspondence, it appears to be central to understanding Whittaker at the time of drafting the new History. His possible antisemitic bias will also be addressed, though with the insufficient information on this subject the matter cannot be settled.

中文翻译：

---

惠特克、爱因斯坦和以太的历史：另一种解释、错误还是偏执？

埃德蒙·T·惠特克 (Edmund T. Whittaker) 在他的《以太和电理论史》的第二版中，将爱因斯坦视为在他所谓的“庞加莱和洛伦兹的相对论”的出现中几乎无关紧要的人物而闻名。科学史家给出了许多解释，其中包括惠特克作为一位古老的古典物理学家的科学保守主义、他对以太的承诺、他认为数学优于物理以及基本的哲学分歧等等。而在幕后，对反犹太主义的指责往往更含蓄而不是直率地笼罩着惠特克。在这篇论文中，我打算通过考虑保存在多伦多大学费舍尔图书馆档案中的惠特克和他儿子之间的大量书信来阐明这一争议。有了它，我们将对他试图推翻爱因斯坦的背景有一个更复杂和更个人的看法。连同上述原因，这种对应关系表明，1950 年代初期广义相对论的问题现状，即广义相对论的低分时期，对他对爱因斯坦的历史处理影响很大。这是关于这一争议的历史著作中几乎没有提到的一个方面，从这封信件来看，它似乎是在起草新历史时理解惠特克的核心。