Three assistants on Boltzmann

The three demi-articles presented here would give a brief biographical acco unt of Ludwig Boltzmann's life plus some details about his Vienna laborator ies first in the 1860's in the Erdberg and second in Turkenstrasse from 189 4. Josef Nabl's account discusses J. J. Thomson's Laboratory in Cambridge, which allows a provisional comparison between two different largely contemp orary institutes. Nabl's second letter also mentions Lord Kelvin's late rej ection of the kinetic gas theory of Maxwell and Boltzmann, rejection which on top of the negative attitude of Mach, Zermelo, and Poincare probably did not benefit Boltzmann's state of mind and may have contributed to the extr eme character of Boltzmann's anti-philosophical counterattack starting in 1 903.