Something about the Mechanism of Induction Phenomena: The forgotten work of Berta de Haas-Lorentz on diamagnetism in superconductors

In 1925, Dr. Geertruida Luberta “Berta” de Haas-Lorentz published the paper “ Iets over het mechanisme van inductieverschijnselen ” in the journal Physica . Her paper was the first to discuss perfect diamagnetism of superconductors, eight years before the discovery of the Meissner effect, when the essential difference between the two phenomena was not understood. Unfortunately, her work was almost forgotten by the scientific community. To counter this, we translate her seminal 1925 paper from Dutch into English. We provide an overview of the life of Dr. De Haas-Lorentz, and comment on her pioneering contribution to the theory of superconductivity. • Translation from Dutch to englis of the paper “Something about the Mechanism of Induction” published by Berta de Haas-Lorentz in 1925. • First attempt to a theory of superconductivity. • First to mention perfect diamagnetism in superconductors.