We’ve all had good years, and 1905 certainly fits the bill. Anyone have ballpark figures?
He was a patent clerk for the Swiss government in 1905. Someone with access to Swiss government records could give you a very accurate answer.
I recall reading that Einstein once used a paycheck as a bookmark, then lost the book and never bothered asking for the check to be reissued.
Bennett Cerf (who knew him personally) claimed the check was for $5,000 (not chump change back then), and that when Al received the reissued check, asked the payer, “What’s this for?”
Dunno the answer, but I always like to tell the story of my mom seeing Einstein bicycling around Princeton when my parents lived there in the mid-Fifties. I asked her if she ever spoke to him, and she said no, she didn’t want to bother him.
Even if you could find the numbers on how much Einstein made in 1905 and in 1955, you would have to adjust for the fact that the cost of living in 1955 was approximately 3.14 times that of 1905 (according to a cost of living website that I just checked, which isn’t actually a very accurate way to do the calculation) and you would have to adjust for the currency exchange between the U.S. and Switzerland.
But the value of what Einstein produced in 1905 did not become fully apparent for quite some time after that. It would not likely have had any effect on his earnings for that year.
I think it would be more complicated than that because you would have to compare the cost of living in 1905 Switzerland with 1955 USA. A straight currency conversion wouldn’t be enough.
Not exactly the years the OP was looking for, but I found this:
From here: Letters to the Editor: Einstein Was Smart About Salaries - WSJ
Isaac Asimove was a professor in Boston until he found he made so much more by writing that he told his boss to “take this job and…”. (University politics can be enjoyable to read about, but no fun if you are on the receiving end.) IIRC about the mid fifties, a plain not-special professor in science was making according to Asimov about $10,000. So if a world-reknowned ground-breaking Nobel laureate was making $15,000 then Princeton was getting a bargain. Of course in the 1930’s, $10,000 during a depression was probably a decent income. I suspect he was well past $10,000 by the fifties. IIRC $7,000 to $10,000 was associate professor wages by the early 1960’s.
$10k in 1955 is the equivalent of around $85k now.
$10k in 1935 is the equivalent of around $165k now.
Are you sure it wasn’t 2.718 times?
When Einstein was hired at the Institute for Advanced Studies in 1932 his salary was $10,000. He only asked for $3000.
Apparently $10,000 was pretty good money for an academic back then.
IIRC the money he got for Nobel prize he gave to his ex-wife as part of his divorce settlement.
Apparently he got tired of her constantly saying, “Nice going, Einstein!”
Not quite, and the actual story is more amusing. The department head told Asimov that he couldn’t justify paying him if his research output didn’t improve. Asimov said “OK, stop paying me”. The head said “All right then, you’re fired”. Asimov replied “Now wait, I never said you could fire me. You can’t, as I have tenure. I said you could stop paying me.”. The end result was that Asimov continued working for Columbia in a minimal capacity, but without getting paid for it, an arrangement which turned out to be mutually beneficial.
Actually it was Boston University, (not to be confused with Boston College, which he accused of being populated by neanderthals).
Another amusing anecdote, IIRC when he was still a grad student at Columbia and on the bad side of several faculty members, was when some prof was unhappy with his lab reports. Apparently Asimov could not bring himself to write in the dry, stilted language that the profs wanted. “The trouble with you, Asimov, is that you can’t write,” one of them told him. Asimov, who by then was already a very popular science fiction writer, drew himself up and said, “I will thank you, sir, not to repeat that calumny to my publishers.”
Asimov also griped publicly when the shooting of Ghostbusters closed several streets in his Central Park East neighborhood of NYC.
Well, after all, he was the world’s foremost expert on thiotimoline.
No, pretty definite it was 3.14159265356 times…
Yeah, in his first autobiography book, he’s happy to contrast university and writing pay until his writing income doubled the level of income for his day job. He specifically mentions telling his envious coworkers that the money gave him the freedom to be difficult and insist on his rights. (Even his second wife thought he was a bit of a ***** the first time she met him, he mentioned once. He apparently made some rude proposition or something. Its been decades since I read the books).
Reading between the lines, he was nothing spectacular as a chemistry prof, so I assume his pay rates were pretty much median for an average prof.
My understanding was that he was fine as a teacher, but a lousy researcher, and the department valued research more than teaching.
Asimov apparently made rude propositions to a lot of women during his first marriage, and during the last half of that marriage (which lasted more than thirty years) quite a few women took him up on those propositions.
Yeah, I thought it was strange too that the factor for inflation between 1905 and 1955 happened to come out close to pi.