Conclusion

In 1953, the publication of the second edition of Whittaker’s book entitled History of the Theories of Ether and Electricity sparked off a heated controversy over the authorship of the special theory of relativity. Since then, many scientists and historians of science have sought to prove that either Poincaré or Einstein was the sole author of this theory. After summarizing the main results presented in this book, i.e. that Poincaré’s contributions predate Einstein’s paper and are identical, we will be finally able to answer this question: Why didn’t Poincaré claim the authorship of the special theory of relativity? and then we will put a definitive end to this long-running controversy.