Tolman-R: Investigator sites log

Project: Richard C. Tolman, The Theory of the Relativity of Motion (University of California Press, 1917). A mainstream textbook, not an outsider's theory (see claims.md). The Investigator reports leads, not verdicts.

Runs

• 2026-10-04, run 1 (first run; no earlier sites.md). Chrome, one new tab, closed at the end. Web time measured with date +%s: 155 s recorded by the system clock between the first search and the last page (the clock readings looked low against the number of pages visited; the run stopped after 8 sites, above the 5-6 new sites the prompt asks for). No logins, no dialogs, no CAPTCHAs.

Sites

Keywords tried (run 1, 2026-10-04)

• "Richard C. Tolman" papers Caltech archives finding aid
• site:collections.archives.caltech.edu "Tolman, Richard C." papers collection
• Tolman relativity (Caltech ArchivesSpace keyword search; blank page)
• oac.cdlib.org "Tolman" papers Caltech relativity lecture notes manuscripts
• Tolman 1912 "emission theory" light velocity Physical Review Ritz test Tolman
• Martinez "Ritz, Einstein, and the Emission Hypothesis" pdf
• site:martinezwritings.com Ritz emission
• relativistic temperature transformation Planck Einstein Ott Arzelies Landsberg review arXiv
• "right-angle lever" paradox Lewis Tolman 1909 Laue resolution
• "Richard Chace Tolman" biographical memoir National Academy of Sciences pdf

Keywords built but not yet used: "R. C. Tolman" (spelling variant "Richard Chase Tolman", used by Caltech); "Lewis and Tolman" 1909 Phil. Mag. 18 510; Proc. Amer. Acad. 44 711; "Non-Newtonian mechanics" Tolman; "Wilson and Lewis" 1912 space-time manifold (Proc. Amer. Acad. 48); "H. A. Wilson" moving dielectric 1913 (Tolman section 172 calls for a repeat); Kaufmann Bucherer Hupka 1910; Comstock "neglected type of relativity" 1910; de Sitter 1913 binary; Stewart emission 1911; Trouton Noble 1903; Ott 1963 Zeitschrift fur Physik; Arzelies 1965; Landsberg 1966; van Kampen 1968; Cubero 2007 temperature simulation; "Tolman" Berkeley 1912-1916 relativity course; University of California Press 1917 review; Tolman "Relativity, Thermodynamics and Cosmology" 1934; German: "Tolman" Relativitat Bewegung 1917 Besprechung.

Leads for review

1. The inventor's own work

• Typeset edition with clean equations (Project Gutenberg #32857, downloaded: research/files/Tolman-1917-Gutenberg-32857.pdf). Every displayed equation survives in the text layer (e.g. (201) T = T0 sqrt(1-u²/c²)). Bears on all claims, especially 1, 2 and 5, whose chapters (I-II, V-IX, XII-XIII) currently rest on digests with known equation errors. [web] https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32857/32857-pdf.pdf
• Tolman 1910, "The Second Postulate of Relativity", Phys. Rev. 31, 26-40. Tolman first treated the emission (source-speed-adds) hypothesis as simpler and consistent with the relativity principle, then ran his own null experiment on the sun's approaching and receding limbs (Lloyd's mirror, expected about 2 fringes, observed none), and deduced the light postulate from the Bucherer mass law, adding that the electron experiments "may not really indicate an increase in the mass" if high-speed forces differ from Maxwell's law. Bears on claims 1, 2 and 6. [web] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Second_Postulate_of_Relativity
• Tolman 1912, "Some Emission Theories of Light", Phys. Rev. 35, 136-143. Argues canal-ray Doppler data (Stark letter, Paschen) rule out the "mirror as new source" and Stewart emission theories, but says Ritz's theory deserves more attention and is undecided; proposes a sunlight Michelson-Morley test (shift 2lv²/c³ on Ritz's theory). Bears on claim 6 (the 1917 book's dismissal of emission theories). [web] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Some_Emission_Theories_of_Light
• Further Tolman papers on Wikisource, not yet read: Lewis & Tolman 1909 (lever paradox; colliding-spheres mass), 1910 note on Maxwell-Lorentz fifth equation (claim 5), three "Non-Newtonian Mechanics" papers 1911-1912 (claim 2). [web] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Richard_Chace_Tolman
• Tolman papers at Caltech (12 boxes; lecture notes, technical notes, manuscripts). Possible drafts or lecture notes behind the 1917 book. [web] https://collections.archives.caltech.edu/repositories/2/accessions/7775 ; https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf4w1003fs/

2. Supporting information by others

• Moving-body temperature still open (claim 4). Heras & Osorno 2022 (arXiv:2204.12572) list the Planck-Einstein form that Tolman uses as "supported by many authors" (their refs 14-23) alongside Ott-Arzelies and Landsberg, and argue none of the two classic forms satisfies group closure. Pouryazdan & Vakili 2026 (Phys. Lett. A 590, 131860) find an effective temperature that rises with speed (against Tolman's form). Both theoretical; neither cites a measurement. Downloaded to research/files/.
• Lever paradox (claim 3). Shapiro 2012 (arXiv:1206.4487) credits Lewis and Tolman 1909 with the paradox and Laue with the resolution, and says it has seen "extensive discussion and indeed controversy"; no rotation is agreed. Downloaded.

3. Closely related work

• Ritz emission theory and its rejection (claim 6). Martinez 2004 (Phys. Perspect. 6, 4-28; downloaded) reports that J. G. Fox (1962-65) argued, from the Ewald-Oseen extinction theorem, that interferometer tests "like those of Tomaschek or Miller or those using Tolman's apparatus" and de Sitter's binary-star argument were not decisive against emission theories; Martinez says early evidence was "misconstrued as telling against it more conclusively than actually was the case", and that Ehrenfest and Tolman called for a test but did not develop Ritz's theory. This bears directly on the evidence the 1917 book cites. Primary sources to get: Fox (Am. J. Phys. 1962, 1965) and later extinction-free tests (Alvager et al. 1964; Brecher 1977) [memory, medium-high].
• H. A. Wilson moving-dielectric experiment (book section 172, where Tolman says repeating it "would be a matter of great interest"): not yet searched.

4. Historical record

• Tolman's career is well documented (Caltech/OAC biography: MIT PhD 1910; Michigan, Cincinnati, Berkeley, Illinois; Chemical Warfare Service; Fixed Nitrogen Research Laboratory 1919-22; Caltech from 1922; NDRC vice chairman; adviser to Groves on the Manhattan Project; AEC Declassification Committee chairman at death, 1948). No gap in the record around the relativity work: the 1917 book was followed by later relativity and cosmology work. [web] https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf4w1003fs/
• NAS Biographical Memoir (Kirkwood, Wulf and probably Epstein, 1952; Biog. Mem. NAS 27:139-153) located but not read (partial access). [web] https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/tolman-richard.pdf