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New BBC does a series, "The Bomb", starting with Leo Szilard: its authentic first-Father.
BBC podcasts.

#1 begins with narrator, his granddaughter. Szilard is first because: it was he who pondered early-on: How? possibly might one make use of the enormous energy within the nucleus [the Strong-Force being just what it says]. Asking Rutherford re that: "This is moonshine". Szilard was very worried that Hitler would make it to Power, knew well the leadership of German physics: his prime motivation to persevere to a Yes?/No! definite conclusion. ie Had there been no LS just then--history would have been quite different.

(Fermi once described LZ as ~one of the smartest persons he knew of). This is a decent tale-telling as with minimal physics, one can grok-sufficiently why (again: a LS deduction entirely, prescient in fact) a chain reaction was conceivable wherein a neutron hit [in some suitable *Element] would need merely a generation of two or more neutrons for the scheme to work: the simplest of an exponential process.
* Note that Otto Hahn, Strassman had yet to discover fission: thus exacly Which-Element (And isotope) to begin serious work. The Dates are handy refreshers of time-spans from LS's first inklings ... Manhattan Project.

Weaving this Opener amidst various Boffins, following steps-in-LS's mind --> thence to the Einstein --> FDR letter, will reveal if you know all this stuff (but might pass it on: as it is good tale-telling) with just enough specifics to remind those who have that history cooled (I grabbed the first book by Gladstone at age ~14, a popular explanation du jour). It lacked that History though. [Note A.E.'s response to LS's presentation] == after he had done experiments with a 0N1 source + oscilloscope, revealing process: Works.

Bon appetít, fellow Imperiled-bipeds ... recalling the Bag-man + The Moron-child
en delicto flagrante, most any old hour.
Expand Edited by Ashton Aug. 13, 2020, 05:28:42 AM EDT
New Well, that was interesting!
I just don’t remember hearing about Leo before. Obviously a most essential first step in seeing possibilities.

Last fall, here at Sun City, Carolina Lakes, we had a “Life Long Learning” lecturer from Oak Ridge, TN. He is, and has been for decades, historian for the Y-12 plant. You can see him in the introduction video here: Y-12’s Anthology

Anyway, I was hoping to visit Oak Ridge on the way West in my motor home this year. Unfortunately, Covid-19 killed that plan for now.
Alex

"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

-- Isaac Asimov
New Indeed, Leo rarely gets even noticed in all those cursory Sci-'histories' churned out
..starting days after August Sixth 1945--not even in the gaggle of movies-about:
people might recall Dr. Louis Slotin. whose screwdriver-slip killed him--as he stopped everyone {just after) In. Place.
so that he can calculate Their doses. While fucking-Knowing: He. Is. Toast. fer-Damn-shure.
That sane, quiet heroism quite trumps the Oops. At very least.

(By now any serious-geek has peeped Feynman's books for-the-masses ..for a few other anecdotes, I guess)
I looked-up, in the Lab's library: the saga re the Idaho ('SL-1', IIRC) reactor meltdown with explosion.
So Much material as never makes it into the Pop-press {{sigh}}
[as per Your Sig, a qed again]. :-/
New My recollection is...
that Leo played a big role in Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb - and deservedly so!

(Also, IIRC) He was applying for patents for fission all the time too, but it took several false starts (with much lighter atoms) before he realized that U was the way to go.

Cheers,
Scott.
New Was reading Rhodes' first book (next: Fusion] enroute from NYC --> Connecticut by train
You've been keeping up; Nice :-)

Had just bought from a pyramid of these, NYC-bookstore: it had just come out. Synchronicity, again!
and fodder later on aeroplane flight West, to boot.

(Old Greenwich CT--a haven for the über-rich of any age]. This was about the recent demise of my name-sake Uncle,
who had taught me/tyke swimming tips,
in Long Island Sound--all this pre-Web natch, or I might have checked* for some of Rhodes' Appendix connections.
An O.G. phone just might have got the phone answered at least, I wot :-þ
* with 20/20 hindsight--believe that thought would have made it to jelloware. IF.

('Course best that I rent a Jaguar, in that happenstance). Oh. Well.
Life is like a box of candy ... sayeth a smarter 'Murican, I heard.
     BBC does a series, "The Bomb", starting with Leo Szilard: its authentic first-Father. - (Ashton) - (4)
         Well, that was interesting! - (a6l6e6x) - (3)
             Indeed, Leo rarely gets even noticed in all those cursory Sci-'histories' churned out - (Ashton) - (2)
                 My recollection is... - (Another Scott) - (1)
                     Was reading Rhodes' first book (next: Fusion] enroute from NYC --> Connecticut by train - (Ashton)

Man, it's a hot one. Like seven inches from the mid-day sun.
119 ms