“The results of the eclipse expedition demonstrating that the rays of light from the stars are bent or deflected from their normal course by other aerial bodies acting upon them and consequently the inference that light has weight form a most important contribution to the laws of gravity given us since Newton laid down his principles.” Sir Joseph Thomson, President of the Royal Society, declares it is not possible to put Einstein’s theory into really intelligible words, yet at the same time Thomson adds: But just look how The New York Times punts instead of going for it when it comes time to explain the results of the experiment – and why all those Men of Science were agog: I know that not too many readers in 1919 were familiar with the concept of space-time curvature. During a solar eclipse, with the moon blocking the sun’s dazzle, starlight grazing the sun’s surface becomes more visible to observers on earth, who can then measure the bending angle of the light rays. The reason: objects as massive as the sun put a nice big dent in space-time. According to Einstein’s theory, light rays passing close to the sun will be deflected by gravity to a greater extent than predicted by classical Newtonian physics.

This vintage science writing makes me wonder how quaint – or even laughable – contemporary science journalism will look 100 years from now.Ī total solar eclipse on had set the stage for the first experimental test of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, published four years earlier.

A headline published on November 10, 1919, in The New York Times.

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