Michele Besso

Michele Angelo Besso (Riesbach, 25 May 1873 – Geneva, 15 March 1955) was a Swiss-Italian engineer who worked closely with Albert Einstein.^[1]

Michele Besso
Born	Michele Besso (1873-05-25)25 May 1873
Died	15 March 1955(1955-03-15) (aged 81)

Biography

Besso was born in Riesbach from a family of Italian Jewish (Sephardi) descent.^[2] He was a close friend of Albert Einstein during his years at the Federal Polytechnic Institute in Zurich,^[3] (today known as ETH Zurich) and then at the patent office in Bern, where Einstein helped him to get a job.^[4] Besso is credited with introducing Einstein to the works of Ernst Mach, the sceptical critic of physics who influenced Einstein's approach to the discipline.^[5] Einstein introduced Besso to his future wife, Anna Winteler, the sister of Einstein's then girlfriend Maria Winteler.

Einstein called Besso “the best sounding board in Europe” for scientific ideas.^[6] In Einstein's original paper on special relativity, he ended the paper by stating, “In conclusion, let me note that my friend and colleague M. Besso steadfastly stood by me in my work on the problem here discussed, and that I am indebted to him for many a valuable suggestion.”^[7]

Besso died in Geneva, aged 81. In a letter of condolence to the Besso family, Albert Einstein wrote “Now he has preceded me a little in parting from this strange world, too. This means nothing. For us believing physicists the distinction between past, present, and future only has the meaning of an illusion, though a persistent one.”^[8] Einstein died one month and 3 days after his friend, on 18 April 1955.

He was the nephew of Marco Besso, president of Assicurazioni Generali, and of the mathematician Davide Besso.

See also

• Einstein's Dreams
• Genius, a television series depicting Einstein's life

Notes

1. Einstein and Besso: From Zürich to Milano by Christian BRACCO
2. Caracciolo, A. (1983). "Una diaspora da Trieste: I Besso nell'Ottocento". Quaderni storici (in Italian). 18, No. 54 (3): 897–912.
3. Einstein as a Student
4. An Einstein Encyclopedia, Alice Calaprice, Daniel Kennefick, Robert Schulmann, p.65, Princeton University Press, 2015
5. Einstein the Early years
6. Calaprice, Alice; Lipscombe, Trevor (2005). Albert Einstein: A Biography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 24.
7. "Volume 2: The Swiss Years: Writings, 1900-1909 (English translation supplement) page 171".
8. Christie's: Time’s arrow: Albert Einstein’s letters to Michele Besso [Accessed on 3 February 2025]. German original (first photo): „Nun ist er mir auch mit dem Abschied von dieser sonderbaren Welt ein wenig vorangegangen. Dies bedeutet nichts. Für uns gläubige Physiker hat die Scheidung zwischen Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft nur die Bedeutung einer wenn auch hartnäckigen Illusion.“

References

• "American Institute of Physics - The Center for History of Physics: Einstein, Image and Impact: The Formative Years, 3". Archived from the original on 2007-12-16.
• Bracco, Christian (2014). "Einstein and Besso: from Zürich to Milano". arXiv:1412.6981 [physics.hist-ph].
• "The Einstein-Besso Manuscript: A Glimpse Behind the Curtain of the Wizard" (PDF). 2002. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-03-20.

Further reading

• Medicus, Heinrich A. (1994). "The Friendship among Three Singular Men: Einstein and His Swiss Friends Besso and Zangger". Isis. 85 (3): 456–478. doi:10.1086/356892. ISSN 0021-1753.