back to Year
| Title | Letter from Victor Franz Hess to Stefan Meyer |
| Original | © Fordham University, New York City, NY USA |
| Editing | ©Victor-Franz-Hess-Gesellschaft Pöllau |
| Content | Hess informs Meyer that he has told Dieuaide that he will not be accepting the professorship at Union Medical College in Beijing. The reason for this is his poor health due to radiation burns caused by radium. However, the main reasons were the political situation in China, his wife and the climate in Beijing. Furthermore, the position was in the medical field, and Hess had bad experiences with medical scientists; in addition, he would not have enough time to work on his studies. Hess then reports on problems with measurements using the Benndorf-Harms condenser. Hess writes that this winter was very cold and there was a very bad flu epidemic. He also reports that he is planning a solar observation expedition for July to measure UV rays. |
| Notes | – Influenzierungskoeffizient: https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/SBAWW_138_2a_0169-0221.pdf (retrieved 19.10.2025) – Kondensator nach Harms (Sammlungsliste histor. Geräte, Univ. Innsbruck): https://www.uibk.ac.at/media/filer_public/33/16/3316aa07-82b7-4906-bd5a-7403bf4513fb/museum-teil1_2025-compressed.pdf (retrieved 19.10.2025) – Union Medical College in Peking: at Tsinghua University, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_Union_Medical_College (retrieved 18.10.2025) |
Transcription: