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Leo Szilard, the Reluctant Father of the Atom Bomb

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Leo Szilard, the Reluctant Father of the Atom Bomb NICHOLAS AND ROBERT HALASZ LEO SZILARD, THE RELUCTANT FATHER OF THE ATOM BOMB I at Princeton, succeeded in locating Einstein's summer hideout. The place seemed deserted, In July, 1939, three outstanding Hun­ with everyone at the beach on that hot day. garian physicists set out in a second hand Finally, a young boy directed them to the cat owned by Edward Teller, the youngest of cabin, not responding to the famous name the team, for a cabin on Long Island Sound, of the summer resident, but to his descrip­ neat New York City. In that cabin, Albert tion as a kindly old man with a long grey Einstein was spending the summer. It was mane. Leo Szilard who initiated the trip, just Einstein immediately grasped the im­ after his successful experiment with the first portance and the urgency of the letter. He chain reaction in uranium atoms. He was signed it. This was the "Einstein-Szilard prompted to visit the great scientist, with letter" dated August 2nd, 1939, which led whom he had worked on a patent in Berlin, to the U.S. development of the atomic bomb. by alarming information brought to America, And here began the formation of the "Hun­ by Dr. Niels Bohr. Bohr had visited Ger­ garian Galaxy" with such stars as Theodore many and fotmd out on reliable authority Karman, whose research in aero- and hydro­ that German nuclear scientists were at work dynamics led to the development of the jet on splitting uranium atoms. plane; John von Neumann, who constructed This information induced Szilard to the first computer, without which the atom look for ways of urging the U.S. government bomb would have been delayed at least a to embark without delay, and in the greatest year; and the three passengers in Teller's secrecy, upon an atomic research programme car. guided by a single purpose: to make the What enhanced Szilard's brilliance in the atomic bomb. The right people must be Gala:>..y was not only the broad perspective persuaded of the deadly urgency of the task; his initiatives opened and the great signifi­ funds of an undetermined but certainly im­ cance of his scientific accomplishments, but mense amount would have to be appropriated, also his relentless insistance on the moral and all this with no guarantees of success. and social responsibilities of scientists for Obviously, there was only one man who the consequences of their research. On this had the authority and the power to do this: principle, he organized the nuclear scientists President Roosevelt. Szilard drafted a letter and initiated political action to prevent an to the President. But it had to be signed by nuclear arms race and nuclear war. a man commanding supreme prestige suf­ ficient to impress the President to disregard Leo Szilard was born in 1 898 in Buda­ the army, which had in the past rejected pest into an upper-middle class family. His suggestions by scientists to conduct research father, Lajos Szilard, an electrical engineer, into atomic bomb possibilities. There was prepared his two sons tyrannically for am­ only one such man: Albert Einstein. bitious careers in technology, which he con­ Eugene Wigner, the third member of the sidered the highroad to success. His mother, team, a childhood friend of Szilard's and Thekla Vidor Szilard-known for her sense an "old" American, who had immigrated of humour-tried to mitigate the well-in­ in 1930 and was teaching theoretical physics tentioned but stern absolutism of the father. THE NEW HUNGARIAN QUARTERLY Leo studied at the Budapest Royal State war. The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy fell High School of Science (forealiskola) near to pieces. l their residence in the City Park Alley. He Those in power in Hungary in her shrun­ showed an early talent for technical ideas, ken, impoverished state, after the lost war, I some practical, some bizarre, and amused adopted discriminatory laws; the admission himself and his family by carrying out various of Jews into the institutions of higher learn­ experiments at home. One anecdote, told by ing was restricred. The political and social his sister, R6zsi, reveals two of his very pressures i;Ievitably caused waves of emigra­ characteristic attitudes, then and later: tion from Hungary. Acrors, directors and pretence made him angry and he could ex­ producers migrated to Germany, England, plain baffiing things with incredible sim­ and, eventually to Hollywood at a time plicity. when, before the advent of the sound films, He was I 3 years old when his younger language difficulties were no particular handi­ brother, Bela, contracted scarlet fever and cap. A second wave of scientists went to had to be isolated. Leo set up a simple wire­ German universities, only to move further less communication system between the boy's West a decade or so later when Hitler came to sickroom and the parlour. His sister admired power. The foremost of these scholars later this feat and asked Leo about the principle were to dazzle the West with their leadership upon which the wireless telegraph worked. in developing the atomic and hydrogen Leo became angry. bombs. They were Hungarians and Szilard "Why," he asked, "do you think you was one of them. know what makes the wire telegraph work?" Young Szilard was considered an ec­ "I don't know, but I can imagine it," centric for disregarding conventions. What she answered. he disliked was self-serving pretence, empty "You think you can imagine it, because or superficial talk on serious subjects, but you assume that the message runs in the he enjoyed playful, grotesque fantasies rest­ wire." ing on solid premises. He embarrassed R6zsi admitted that she believed just schoolmates with ideas formulated with that. provocative bluntness. He was also hand­ "But," Leo said, now softened, "a clever some, with a distinctive head crowned with man (Marconi) has found that the message a leonine mane. • does not run in the wire at all. He simply Szilard continued his studies at the removed the wire--and the message has run Technische Hochschule in Berlin in 1920. without it ever since." •i The greatest physicists in the world lived In 1916, his last year in high school, Leo and worked in Germany at that time-giants won the award for mathematics. In the same such as Albert Einstein, Max Planck and year he won the first national contest for Max von Laue. Szilard's thesis for his students in physics, established by the Hun­ doctorate on oscillation phenomena, sub­ garian Academy of Sciences. mitted in 1922, attracted their attention for After high school, Leo enrolled in the its originality and insight. Einstein worked Institute of Technology (Mt1egyetem) in on Szilard's idea of a device for pumping Budapest, in deference to his father's wish that liquid metals, solving an engineering and he becomC:an engineer. The First World War refrigeration problem. They took out a joint interrupted his studies, and he was drafted patent on the invention. Szilard became into the Austro-Hungarian army with the Privatdo~nt at the University of Berlin in rank of second lieutenant-but saw no action 1929. This was a decorous title that brought due to the revolution in 1918, which put in little money. He lived on remittances an end to his countrv's participation in the from his father in a typical furnished room SURVEYS for students in Berlin-Charlottenburg. His end of the novel, all the cities of the world situation thoroughly changed in 1929, when were in ruins. Upon the Armageddon, the Max von Laue made him his only assistant scientists of the world rose and assumed at the lnstitut fur Theoretische Physik, an power for a world government. appointment that brought Szilard great Szilard was deeply moved by this vision prestige among scientists, and also a con­ of destruction and redemption, and visited siderable income. Wells in London in 1932. The illustrious The year 1929 was crucial for his career author dealt at length on his theory of how as an outstanding scientist. He published the world might be saved from such devasta­ a paper in Berlin on a theory of information tion. In his opinion, the only way was to issuing from telecommunication. "In this form an open conspiracy by scientists who paper Szilard was really pioneering in the could appropriate power through their unknown territory, which we are now ex­ knowledge of atomic secrets and force the ploring in all directions," Uon Brillouin rest of the world to accept a world govern­ wrote in 1962. His approach to problems ment. not even in existence was characterized by It was now clear to Szilard that he must another scientist, Ralph E. Lapp, who noted: work with no illusions about the difficulties "Leo Szilard, a Hungarian born physicist of liberating atomic energy, but also make had a flair for stabbing in the dark and com­ sure that it be used for the good ofhumaniry. ing up with ideas for new ventures." With the assistance of a young English The sinister spring of the economic physicist, T. A. Chalmers, he immersed depression in Germany, the Nazi movement, himself in nuclear research at England's made Szilard pessimistic of future political Clarendon Laboratories. Their work resulted developments in that country. He intended in two discoveries published by and discussed at that time to switch to biology and made at the International Conference on Physics inquiries in England to reputed biologists in London, 1934, which brought Szilard an concerning the ideas he planned to pursue Oxford Fellowship. in that discipline. He received encourage­ It inspired Szilard to formulate one of ment and useful advice from them.
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