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| Leo Szilard |
A Hungarian-American physicist, Leo Szilard was the proponent of the
nuclear chain reaction back in 1933. He also established the
relationship between the transfer of information and entropy which was
what lead to being able to develop the means to separate radioactive
elements as well as isotopes. He was also one of the first scientists
who recognized the significance of nuclear fission which was the key
element behind the development of atomic weapons used by the United
States.
Early Life and Educational Background
Born in 1989, on the eleventh day of February, he was the son of an
engineer and a member of one of the more affluent Jewish families back
then. His name had originally been Leo Spitz, but it was changed to
Szilard in the year 1900.
As a child, his interest in Physics came at an early age of just 13
years old—considering how advanced his interests were for his age. He
was attending the public school of Budapest before he was drafted to
become one of the members of the 1917 Austro-Hungarian army.
While he was in the army, he had been sent to the officer’s training
school but was spared of having to engage in active duty because he had
influenza. When the war ended, he stayed in Budapest but this set up
didn’t last long because of political unrest in the area as well as lack
of better educational opportunities. Because of these reasons, he went
to Berlin in 1919.
During his time in Berlin, he took engineering courses in the
Technische Hochschule or the Institute of Technology. His main interest
had still been physics and he had been drawn to the works of the great
minds of physics such as Albert Einstein, Erwin Schroedinger, Max Von
Laue, Fritz Haber, Walter Nernst, and Max Planck. Most of these
physicists had also been teaching in Berlin during those days.
Szilard later on gave up his courses in engineering in the year 1921,
and studied physics in the University of Berlin where he was one of the
students of renowned physicist Max von Laue. A year later, Szilard
earned his cum laude doctorate after his submission of his dissertation
called “Uber die thermodynamischen Schwankungserscheinungen” where he
discussed the Second Law of Thermodynamics and how it affected not just
mean values but the fluctuating values as well. The ideas from his
dissertation are now the bases of modern theories.
Career
After he completed his doctorate, he worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute in Berlin along with Hermann Mark, a chemist who is well known
for his contributions for the progress of polymer science. During this
time, the studies conducted by Szilard focused on how X-rays scattered
in crystals as well as the polarization of the same rays when reflected
by crystals.
During the years 1925-1933, he had been working with none other than
Albert Einstein and together they applied for numerous patents for their
collaborative work. One of their more famous patents had been the
refrigeration system which they based on pumping metals through a moving
magnetic field. Their interest during that time was to catch the
attention of A.E.G.—a company which is also known as the German General
Electric company, and they hoped that the company would produce a
refrigerator to be based on the patent they had. While this refrigerator
was never really produced the same refrigeration system they created
was used in 1942 to come up with an atomic reactor.
Szilard transferred to England in 1933—the same time when Adolf
Hitler also rose to power. There, he had his collaborations with T.A.
Chalmers where they came up with the Szilard-Chalmers process. This is
the technique where stable isotopes and radioactive elements were
separated. Most of his activities during his stay in London had been to
have patents for his inventions, as these patents help improve his
income through the help of the firm named Claremont, Haynes, and
Company. During that time, he was able to influence Sir William
Beveridge to establish the Academic Assistance Council, which aimed to
help the prosecuted scientists to leave then Nazi Germany. From 1935 to
1937, Szilard had been one of the research physicists of the Clarendon
Laboratory in the Oxford University.
The Nuclear Chain Reaction
During his time in London, he first attempted to create the nuclear
chain reaction by using indium and beryllium which did not achieve the
desired effects. The patent for his nuclear chain reaction was assigned
to the British Admiralty with the idea of keeping it secret in mind.
Along with Enrico Fermi, Szilard also co-held the patent for the nuclear
reactor.
After that time, he moved to Manhattan for research to be done at the
Columbia University and shortly after, Fermi went to join him in 1938.
In 1939, Szilard along with other scientists namely Fermi, Otto Frisch,
Lise Meitner, Fritz Strassman, and Otto Hahn, they were able to conclude
how uranium can sustain the chemical reaction they were looking for.
With Fermi, Szilard was able to deduce how uranium can be used to
sustain chain reactions and that it can be used for nuclear weapons.
When they realized this, Szilard also understood what their discovery
implied—that it could cause much grief for the world when used in the
wrong ways.
Szilard’s Ideas and Views Concerning Nuclear Weapons
He read H.G. Wells’ The World Set Free—a novel which had made a great
impact on his thoughts. As a man of science, it was also Szilard who
first conceived the possibility of having a device which uses the
nuclear chain reaction to come up with a bomb. However, since he was a
survivor of economic and political strife in Hungary, he had developed
an unending passion for preserving the human life as well as maintaining
freedom—even for communicating ideas.
He had advocated not using atomic bombs, knowing how it would also
affect not just those considered as “enemies” but civilians and
innocents. He had hoped that the mere thought of such a weapon could
make Japan and Germany surrender. However, the atomic bombs used in
Nagasaki and Hiroshima were still used despite the protests from Szilard
as well as other scientists who grasped the complete idea of how it
would affect the people in the area where the bombs eventually fell.
