I would rather choose to be a plumber

Einstein's pipe dream

May 12, 2023

Einstein with a different kind of pipe, 1933 (Photo: Getty)

Albert Einstein received an influx of mail at the end of 1954—a flurry of correspondence from a source you wouldn’t necessarily expect. From across the land came letters from plumbers.

On 13th October of that year, Einstein had replied to a letter from the editor of The Reporter in which the Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist was asked to comment on the hostile treatment of intellectuals during the McCarthy era, about which Einstein had already been vocal. In his response to The Reporter he wrote:

You have asked me what I thought about your articles concerning the situation of the scientists in America. Instead of trying to analyze the problem I may express my feeling in a short remark:
If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make my living, I would not try to become a scientist or scholar or teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.

Very soon those words were in print, and it didn’t take long for a flush of plumbers

to begin sending letters, and on a few occasions plumbing tools, to the world’s most famous scientist. He was also given honorary membership to a plumbers’ union, who sent him a working card and addressed him as a “brother” in a letter welcoming him to the fold. I like to imagine he put the tools to good use.

Below are just two of the letters he received.

The Albert Einstein Archives at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

STANLEY PLUMBING & HEATING CO.
November 11, 1954
Dr. Albert Einstein
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey
Dear Dr. Einstein:
As a plumber I am very much interested in your comment made in the letter being published in the Reporter Magazine. Since my ambition has always been to be a scholar and yours seems to be a plumber, I suggest that as a team we would be tremendously successful.
We can then be possessed of both knowledge and independence.
I am ready to change the name of my firm to read: Einstein and Stanley Plumbing Co.
Respectfully yours,
R. Stanley Murray

TOLEDO PIPE THREADING MACHINE CO.
Dr. Albert Einstein
Princeton, New Jersey
Dear Dr. Einstein:
The Toledo Blade recently stated that you said, “If I would be a young man again and had to decide how to make a living, I would not try to become a scientist or a scholar or a teacher. I would rather choose to be a plumber or a peddler in the hope to find that modest degree of independence still available under present circumstances.”
You have achieved leadership with outstanding success in the first three vocations, and the third you mentioned - a plumber - is also an honorable profession.
Therefore, this Company, builders of fine plumbers pipe tools for over 50 years, is indeed glad to send you with our compliments a set of genuine “TOLEDO” plumbers pipe tools.
They are so easy to operate that we are sure you will enjoy using them on any little piping jobs you may have about your home.
They should serve you well for many years.
Yours most sincerely,
H. A. Mikesell
Vice President

Pure guesswork on the collective noun but I’m feeling confident.