  We look afresh at the deduction of the "Lorentz contraction" of a "rod" from
the Lorentz transformation equations of the special theory of relativity. We
show that under special conditions, which include acceleration of the "rod",
length "expansion" and "invariance" are possible, and thus these are purely
kinematical phenomena. We then take a closer look at Einstein's two famous
papers on the special theory of relativity and point out a flaw in his
argument. It seems that it is possible to have the times of the clocks of two,
and indeed all, inertial systems to agree with each other.
