Jewish Invention Myths: The Interferometer
Moving into yet another jewish invention myth; we have the claim that jews invented the interferometer which is an instrument widely used in physics to this day.
Since most people – including myself before I wrote this article – probably have absolutely no idea what an interferometer is and does I quote Wiki’s description of them to help our collective understanding:
‘Interferometers are devices that extract information from interference. They are widely used in science and industry for the measurement of microscopic displacements, refractive index changes and surface irregularities. In the case with most interferometers, light from a single source is split into two beams that travel in different optical paths, which are then combined again to produce interference; two incoherent sources can also be made to interfere under some circumstances.’ (1)
Now let’s move onto to the jewish claim about their inventing interferometers:
‘Albert Abraham Michelson – Interferometer
A physicist and brilliant experimenter Albert Michelson designed an interferometer that made it possible to study optical phenomena based on the interferometry of light waves.’ (2)
There are two major issues with this claim but let’s focus first on the history of the interferometer.
The first interferometer was actually invented by François Arago – a French mathematician and physicist born near the French border with Spain – in 1818-1819 at the Paris Observatory in France.
Arago’s interferometer would later by used by Leon Foucault in 1850 to measure the speed of light in air relative to water, and it was used again in 1851 by Hippolyte Fizeau to measure the effect of Fresnel drag on the speed of light in moving water. (4)
Further Jules Jamin – a French physicist – developed an improved interferometer called the Jamin Interferometer in 1856. (5)
Subsequently American physicist Albert Michelson invented the Michelson Interferometer to search for effects of the motion of the Earth on the speed of light in 1881 in Berlin.
Michelson’s invention is important to be sure, but he didn’t invent the interferometer nor was (or is) his interferometer the most important as that would be Arago’s since - for example - it was Arago’s not Michelson’s interferometer that Einstein used for his work on the theory of relativity instance. (6)
This means that Michelson while important in the history of physics didn’t invent the interferometer at all but rather an improved version of it.
But what is the second issue with the Michelson ‘jewish invention’ claim made by ‘MNews’?
Well, there is some doubt expressed by his biographers over Michelson's jewishness as while his father probably was, he also absolutely refused to identify as ethnically jewish and certainly didn’t practice Judaism, while Michelson’s mother although often thought to be jewish probably wasn’t. (7)
Hence Michelson was halakhically non-jewish although he would have qualified as jewish by the standards used by Israel for their ‘Law of Return’ assuming that his father was actually ethnically jewish.
Therefore, we can see that not only did jews not invent the interferometer but the jewishness of the candidate they put forward is under significant dispute!
Scratch another jewish invention myth!
References
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry
(2) https://mnews.world/en/news/the-great-jews-and-their-inventions
(3) Bryan Bunch, Alexander Hellemans, 1988, ‘The Timetables of Science: A Chronology of the Most Important People and Events in the History of Science’, 1st Edition, Simon & Schuster: New York, p. 261; also cf. James Lequeux, 2015, ‘François Arago: A 19th Century French Humanist and Pioneer in Astrophysics’, 1st Edition, Springer: New York
(4) David Nolte, 2023, ‘Interference: The History of Optical Interferometry and the Scientists Who Tamed Light’, 1st Edition, Oxford University Press: New York, pp. 99-108
(5) https://zenodo.org/records/1423640
(6) Nolte, Op. Cit., p. 111
(7) Dorothy Livingston, 1973, 'The Master of Light: A Biography of Albert A. Michelson', 1st Edition, University of Chicago Press: Chicago, p. 12