| | '''Leo Szilard''' invented the [[atomic bomb]]. Szilard was born in [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]], but claimed [[German]] citizenship. Szilard knew [[Boris Pregel]], president of the Canadian [[Radium]] and [[Uranium]] Corporation before [[World War II]] when both lived in [[Europe]]. Szilard came to the United States approximately 1940. | | '''Leo Szilard''' invented the [[atomic bomb]]. Szilard was born in [[Budapest]], [[Hungary]], but claimed [[German]] citizenship. Szilard knew [[Boris Pregel]], president of the Canadian [[Radium]] and [[Uranium]] Corporation before [[World War II]] when both lived in [[Europe]]. Szilard came to the United States approximately 1940. |
| − | Szilard is credited with having the idea of a [[nuclear]] [[chain reaction]] would release massive amounts of [[energy]], and with convincing [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Einstein]], and others that it is possible. He received a US patent for it. In 1945, after the [[Manhattan Project]] had made a successful atomic bomb, Szilard started a [[petition]], signed by a number of his fellow atomic [[scientist]]s, requesting that the bomb not be used against [[Japan]]. | + | Szilard is the first known [[person]] to have the idea of a [[nuclear]] [[chain reaction]]. He had this moment of [[insight]] on September 12, 1933.<ref>Rhodes, Richard (1986). The Making of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671441337 pp. 292–293."In London, where Southampton Row passes Russell Square, across from the British Museum in Bloomsbury, Leo Szilard waited irritably one gray Depression morning for the stoplight to change. A trace of rain had fallen during the night; Tuesday, September 12, 1933, dawned cool, humid and dull. Drizzling rain would begin again in early afternoon. When Szilard told the story later he never mentioned his destination that morning. He may have had none; he often walked to think. In any case another destination intervened. The stoplight changed to green. Szilard stepped off the curb. As he crossed the street time cracked open before him and he saw a way to the future, death into the world and all our woes, the shape of things to come."</ref> Such an event would release massive amounts of [[energy]]. It convinced [[Enrico Fermi]], [[Einstein]], and others that it is possible. He received a US patent for it. In 1945, after the [[Manhattan Project]] had made a successful atomic bomb, Szilard started a [[petition]], signed by a number of his fellow atomic [[scientist]]s, requesting that the bomb not be used against [[Japan]]. |