Flint and the British Tradition of Relativity Theory

Most scientists and scholars are familiar with Sir Arthur Eddington's role in verifying General Relativity in 1919. A few less are aware of his work introducing the theory to the English scientific community. Still less know of Eddington's extensions of relativity theory, especially his attempts to develop a unified field theory. But very few scholars, historians or even physicists are aware of the important role played by other English scientists in the acceptance and development of relativity. In fact, H.T. Flint and his colleagues published more than thirty-five articles in peer reviewed journals in Britain over a period of four decades in an attempt to extend relativity to include electromagnetism and the quantum. Yet his work and that of his close associates is almost completely unknown today, in spite of the fact that he published a book describing his complete unified field theory in the 1960s, well before most quantum theorists even began thinking along the lines of unification. In a world filled with speculations about gravitons, superstrings, quantum loops and other unification models, Flint did it first, but his work has all but disappeared from the scientific consciousness. From Eddington to Flint, the English school of relativists has produced ardent supporters of relativity and numerous advances beyond the standard interpretations of general relativity.