In 1933, A physicist in Hungary named Leo Szilard conceived of the idea of the nuclear chain reaction while walking to work at St. Bartholomew's Hospital waiting for traffic lights to change on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury.
The following year he filed for a patent on the concept. He even patented the idea.
Szilárd first attempted to create a chain reaction using beryllium and indium, but these elements did not produce a chain reaction. During 1936, he assigned the chain-reaction patent to the British Admiralty to ensure its secrecy (GB patent 630726). Szilárd also was the co-holder, with Nobel Laureate Enrico Fermi, of the patent on the nuclear reactor (U.S. Patent 2,708,656).
So much for Einstein being the father of the atomic bomb... Einstein was a johnny-come-lately to the party.
Szilárd was directly responsible for the creation of the Manhattan Project. He drafted a confidential letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt explaining the possibility of nuclear weapons, warning of Nazi work on such weapons and encouraging the development of a program which could result in their creation. During August 1939 he approached his old friend and collaborator Albert Einstein and convinced him to sign the letter.
We all know what happened then... Einstein ran with it, after which Szilard probably referred to Einstein as his "ex" old friend and collaborator.
Lest you think this is another anti-Jew rant, I remind you that Szilard was a Hungarian Jew.
3 comments:
What happened to Szilard? The 1930's and 1940's were a dangerous time for Jews.
During 1933 Szilárd fled to London to escape Nazi persecution.
Then in 1938 he accepted an offer to conduct research at Columbia University in Manhattan, and moved to New York, and became a naturalized citizen of the United States during 1943.
Szilárd was directly responsible for the creation of the Manhattan Project, where, in Decenmber 1942, the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction occured.
During 1947, Szilárd switched from physics to molecular biology, working extensively with Aaron Novick. He proposed, during February 1950, a new kind of nuclear weapon using cobalt as a tamper, a cobalt bomb, which he said might destroy all life on the planet.
In 1962, he joined a group of scientists who founded the Council for a Livable World. They were an anti-nuclear war group.
He died in May 1964, in his sleep.
Thank you for educating me.
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