E = mc2 is Not Einstein's Discovery
Robert A. Herrmann
Section 7. Final E= mc2 Remarks.
Poincaré, Hasenöhrl, and Planck are not the only individuals that have a certain priority relative to E = mc2.According to Professor Umberto Bartocci, Olinto De Pretto published the expression E = mc2 in the science magazine Atti (Atte) in 1903. His expression was a speculation that was not derived from more fundamental principles such as special relativity.
There is considerable evidence that Einstein was aware of the De Pretto speculation and that this was an additional driving force behind his faulty attempt to derive this expression for radiation, at the least. There is also very strong evidence that Einstein never gave De Pretto any credit for his great insight. It is an absolute requirement that one must do a certain amount of literature "research" prior to publishing a claimed new disclosure. This is done to determine if, indeed, your claimed disclosure is new, or to give credit to others that have certain levels of priority if your derivation is obtained by other means.
There is no doubt in my mind that Einstein would have known of the last Hasenöhrl paper since it appeared in the principle journal that Einstein used six months later to publish his own claimed (1905) derivation. If I am correct, then Einstein would thus have been aware of Hasenöhrl's first paper as well. Poincaré was a very well-known mathematician who had won the first Bolyai prize, a prize that Einstein did not win when nominated by Hilbert.
I do not speculate any further as to why, today, proper credit is not being given to the contributions of Hasenöhrl, Poincaré, Planck and De Pretto.(9 Sept 2000. Revised 1 Jan 2004)
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http://www.raherrmann.com/einpdf.pdf
