Leo
Szilard, the son of a Jewish civil engineer,
was born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1898. In the First
World War he fought in the the Austro-Hungarian
Army.
In
1919 he began studyingelectrical engineering and physics in Budapest
before moving to Berlin to study under Albert
Einstein, Max Planck and Max
von Laue. In 1923 he began carrying out x-ray diffraction experiments
at Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. The following year he became
Laue's assistant at the Institute for Theoretical Physics in Berlin.
Szilard
was appointed a lecturer in physics in 1929. He also worked with Albert
Einstein and they eventually developed a home refrigerator without
moving parts. Szilard became friends with H.G.
Wells and they discussed the possibility of establishing an international
movement of progressive intellectuals.
When
Adolf Hitler gained power in 1933 Szilard
left Nazi Germany and moved to England.
The following year he published his views on the possibility of achieving
neutron chain reaction. Although his ideas were rejected by Ernest
Rutherford, he began his experiments at St. Bartholomew's Hospital
and in 1934 developed a method of artificially producing radioactive
isotopes.
In
1938 he emigrated to the United States where
he taught nuclear physics at Columbia University. Soon afterwards
Szilard heard about the research being carried out by Otto
Hahn and Fritz Strassmann at the
Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Germany
that appeared to show that the uranium nuclei could be split when
bombarded with neutrons. He also read and article by Otto
Frisch and Lise Meitner, explaining
the theory of uranium fission. In the paper they argued that by splitting
the atom it was possible to use a few pounds of uranium to create
the explosive and destructive power of many thousands of pounds of
dynamite.
Szilard
contacted Albert Einstein about these
developments. On 2nd August, 1939, Szilard, Einstein, and another
Jewish scientist, Eugene
Wigner, wrote a joint letter to President Franklin
D. Roosevelt, about the developments that had been taking place
in nuclear physics. They warned Roosevelt that scientists in Germany
were working on the possibility of using uranium to produce nuclear
weapons.
In
1942 Szilard and Enrico Fermi began building
the first fission reactor in Chicago.
The following year Szilard joined
the
Manhattan
Project.
Over the next two years he worked with Robert
Oppenheimer,
Edward Teller, Otto
Frisch,
Felix Bloch, Enrico
Fermi, David Bohm, James
Chadwick, James
Franck,
Emilio
Segre,
Niels Bohr, Eugene
Wigner and Klaus Fuchs in developing
the atom bomb.
In
1945 Szilard and James Franck circulated
a petition among the Manhattan Project
scientists opposing the use of the atomic bomb
on moral grounds. However, the advice was ignored by Harry
S. Truman and the bombs were dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki.
After
the war Szilard became a leading campaigner in favour of international
control of nuclear weapons. In 1947 he wrote Letter
to Stalin, proposing methods for reducing tensions between
the United States and the Soviet
Union.
In
1955 Szilard and James Franck registered
a patent on a nuclear reactor. The following year he became professor
of biophysics at Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies in Chicago.
Szilard
helped organize the first of the Pugwash conferences in 1957. These
conferences enabled top scientists from all countries to discuss peace
and world security.
In
1962 Szilard founded the Council for Abolishing War. He also published
a book on the misuse of scientific knowledge entitled The
Voice of Dolphins (1961). Leo Szilard died in La Jolla,
California, on 30th May, 1964.
(1)
During the Second World War the United States
government became worried about the activities of foreign scientists
with left-wing political views, living in the United
States. On 1st November, 1940, Albert
Einstein
was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Professor
Albert Einstein was contacted at his home 112 Mercer Street, and he
advised that he has known Leo Szilard since about the year 1920. He
said that he believes Szilard is a little over 30 years of age and
was born in Hungary of Jewish parents. Professor Einstein advised
that he did not know anything about Szilard's relatives as he only
knew him from a scientific point of view.
He further
advised that Leo Szilard was probably educated
in Budapest, Hungary but that later in life he had spent most of his
time in Berlin, Germany. He also stated that Szilard
had left Germany about the year 1933 and that he had spent sometime
in England, although he, Einstein, could not
recall whether Szilard had been in England prior
to or after the year 1933. Professor Einstein
further related that Szilard had made several
trips to the United States in recent years.
He advised
that Szilard, while in Berlin, had been assistant
to Professor Max von Laue at the University of Berlin. He said that
Professor Laue was a very decent man and that he is the only German
he knows who behaved in an admirable way after Hitler's advent to
power. Professor Einstein continued that at
the time Szilard was at the University of Berlin
he himself was at the Academy of Music in Berlin and he saw Szilard
every day for many years. He said that he did not believe that Szilard
had ever become a German citizen, although he was not positive of
this.
He went
on to say that Szilard had left Germany about
the year 1933 and that he believes Szilard went
to England and visited America on several occasions.
He advised
that at the present time Szilard is connected
in some manner with Columbia University in New York City, where he
is working on uranium experiments for military purposes. He stated
that this work is on a private scale but that it is financed by the
University. He said that Szilard is working
with an Italian by the name of Fermi, who is a very trustworthy man.
Professor Einstein said that he sees Szilard
quite frequently as Szilard visits him to inform
him as to his work on the uranium experiment. He said that the last
time he had seen Szilard was a week or ten days
ago, at which time Szilard had visited him,
together with Professor Eugene Wigner, of Princeton University.
Professor
Einstein advised that Szilard
is a theoretical physicist. He stated that Szilard
is a very idealistic man who is not at all politically minded. He
stated that he had never been connected with any organizations, societies,
or political groups abroad. He said that Szilard
is a very fine, gifted young man; that he is absolutely honest, reliable,
and trustworthy, and that he would recommend him very highly to the
United States Government. Professor Einstein
stated that he would recommend Szilard without
any hesitation and that he would assume any responsibility for his
conduct. He said that Szilard is as anti-Nazi
as he himself is and that Szilard is an outspoken
Democrat. He further advised that he believed the U.S. Government
could trust Szilard in any respect without any
fear whatever that Szilard might disclose confidential
information to a foreign power.
(2)
W. L. McFatridge, intelligence officer, report on Leo Szilard (19th
June. 1943)
The surveillance
reports indicate that Subject is of Jewish extraction, has a fondness
for delicacies and frequently makes purchases in delicatessen stores,
usually eats his breakfast in drug stores and other meals in
restaurants, walks a great deal when he cannot secure a taxi, usually
is shaved in a barber shop, speaks occasionally in a foreign tongue,
and associates mostly with people of Jewish extraction. He is inclined
to be rather absent minded and eccentric, and will start out a door,
turn around and come back .
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