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Einstein-Szilard Letter - Wikipedia

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Einstein-Szilard Letter - Wikipedia

important knowlegde about einstein discovery

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7/21/24, 1:20 PM Einstein–Szilard letter - Wikipedia

Einstein–Szilard letter
The Einstein–Szilard letter was a letter
written by Leo Szilard and signed by Albert
Einstein on August 2, 1939, that was sent to
President of the United States Franklin D.
Roosevelt. Written by Szilard in consultation
with fellow Hungarian physicists Edward Teller
and Eugene Wigner, the letter warned that
Germany might develop atomic bombs and
suggested that the United States should start its
own nuclear program. It prompted action by
Facsimile of the Einstein–Szilard letter
Roosevelt, which eventually resulted in the
Manhattan Project, the development of the first
atomic bombs, and the use of these bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Origin
Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann
reported the discovery of nuclear
fission in uranium in the January
6, 1939, issue of Die
Naturwissenschaften, and Lise
Meitner identified it as nuclear
fission in the February 11, 1939
issue of Nature. This generated
intense interest among physicists.
Danish physicist Niels Bohr
Leo Szilard Albert Einstein
brought the news to the United
States, and the U.S. opened the The letter was conceived and written by Szilard, and signed by Einstein
Fifth Washington Conference on
Theoretical Physics with Enrico
Fermi on January 26, 1939. The results were quickly corroborated by experimental physicists,
most notably Fermi and John R. Dunning at Columbia University.[1]

Hungarian physicist Leo Szilard realized that the neutron-driven fission of heavy atoms could be
used to create a nuclear chain reaction which could yield vast amounts of energy for electric power
generation or atomic bombs. He had first formulated and patented such an idea while he lived in
London in 1933 after reading Ernest Rutherford's disparaging remarks about generating power
from his team's 1932 experiment using protons to split lithium. However, Szilard had not been able
to achieve a neutron-driven chain reaction with neutron-rich light atoms. In theory, if the number
of secondary neutrons produced in a neutron-driven chain reaction was greater than one, then
each such reaction could trigger multiple additional reactions, producing an exponentially
increasing number of reactions.[2][3]
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Szilard collaborated with Fermi to build a nuclear reactor from natural uranium at Columbia
University, where George B. Pegram headed the physics department. There was disagreement
about whether fission was produced by uranium-235, which made up less than one percent of
natural uranium, or the more abundant uranium-238 isotope, as Fermi maintained. Fermi and
Szilard conducted a series of experiments and concluded that a chain reaction in natural uranium
could be possible if they could find a suitable neutron moderator. They found that the hydrogen
atoms in water slowed neutrons but tended to capture them. Szilard then suggested using carbon
as a moderator. They then needed large quantities of carbon and uranium to create a reactor.
Szilard was convinced that they would succeed if they could get the materials.[4]

Szilard was concerned that German scientists might also attempt this experiment. German nuclear
physicist Siegfried Flügge published two influential articles on the exploitation of nuclear energy in
1939.[5][6] After discussing this prospect with fellow Hungarian physicist Eugene Wigner, they
decided that they should warn the Belgians, as the Belgian Congo was the best source of uranium
ore. Wigner suggested that Albert Einstein might be a suitable person to do this, as he knew the
Belgian royal family.[7] Szilard knew Einstein well; between 1926 and 1930, he had worked with
Einstein to develop the Einstein refrigerator.[8][9]

The letter
On July 12, 1939, Szilard and Wigner drove in Wigner's car to Cutchogue on New York's Long
Island, where Einstein was staying.[10] When they explained the possibility of atomic bombs,
Einstein replied: "Daran habe ich gar nicht gedacht" ("I did not even think about that").[11]
Einstein dictated a letter in German to the Belgian Ambassador to the United States. Wigner wrote
it down, and Einstein agreed and signed it. At Wigner's suggestion, they also prepared a letter for
the State Department explaining what they were doing and why, giving it two weeks to respond if it
had any objections.[10]

This still left the problem of getting government support for uranium research. Another friend of
Szilard's, the Austrian economist Gustav Stolper, suggested approaching Alexander Sachs, who had
access to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Sachs told Szilard that he had already spoken to the
President about uranium, but that Fermi and Pegram had reported that the prospects for building
an atomic bomb were remote. He told Szilard that he would deliver the letter, but suggested that it
come from someone more prestigious. For Szilard, Einstein was again the obvious choice.[7] Sachs
and Szilard drafted a letter riddled with spelling errors and mailed it to Einstein.[12]

Szilard also set out himself for Long Island again on August 2. Wigner was unavailable, so this time
Szilard co-opted another Hungarian physicist, Edward Teller, to do the driving. After receiving the
draft, Einstein dictated the letter first in German. On returning to Columbia University, Szilard
dictated the letter in English to a young departmental stenographer, Janet Coatesworth. She later
recalled that when Szilard mentioned extremely powerful bombs, she "was sure she was working
for a nut".[13] Ending the letter with "Yours truly, Albert Einstein" did nothing to alter this
impression. Both the English letter and a longer explanatory letter were then posted to Einstein for
him to sign.[13]

The letter dated August 2 and addressed to President Roosevelt warned that:

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"In the course of the last four months it has been made probable – through the work of
Joliot in France as well as Fermi and Szilard in America – that it may become possible to
set up a nuclear chain reaction in a large mass of uranium, by which vast amounts of
power and large quantities of new radium-like elements would be generated. Now it
appears almost certain that this could be achieved in the immediate future.

This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable
– though much less certain – that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be
constructed. A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very
well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However,
such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air."[14]

It also specifically warned about Germany:

"I understand that Germany has actually stopped the sale of uranium from the
Czechoslovakian mines which she has taken over. That she should have taken such early
action might perhaps be understood on the ground that the son of the German Under-
Secretary of State, von Weizsäcker, is attached to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut in Berlin
where some of the American work on uranium is now being repeated."[14]

At the time of the letter, the estimated material necessary for a fission chain reaction was several
tons. Seven months later a breakthrough in Britain would estimate the necessary critical mass to
be less than 10 kilograms, making delivery of a bomb by air a possibility.[15]

Delivery
The Einstein–Szilard letter was signed by Einstein and posted back to
Szilard, who received it on August 9.[13] Szilard gave both the short
and long letters, along with a letter of his own, to Sachs on August 15.
Sachs asked the White House staff for an appointment to see
President Roosevelt, but before one could be set up, the
administration became embroiled in a crisis due to Germany's
invasion of Poland, which started World War II.[16]

Sachs delayed his appointment until October so that the President


would give the letter due attention, securing an appointment on
October 11. On that date he met with the President, the President's
secretary, Brigadier General Edwin "Pa" Watson, and two ordnance
experts, Army Lieutenant Colonel Keith F. Adamson and Navy Roosevelt's reply
Commander Gilbert C. Hoover. Roosevelt summed up the
conversation as: "Alex, what you are after is to see that the Nazis don't
blow us up."[17]

Roosevelt sent a reply thanking Einstein, and informing him that:

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"I found this data of such import that I have convened a Board consisting of the head of
the Bureau of Standards and a chosen representative of the Army and Navy to thoroughly
investigate the possibilities of your suggestion regarding the element of uranium."[18]

Einstein sent two more letters to Roosevelt, on March 7, 1940, and April 25, 1940, calling for action
on nuclear research. Szilard drafted a fourth letter for Einstein's signature that urged the President
to meet with Szilard to discuss policy on nuclear energy. Dated March 25, 1945, it did not reach
Roosevelt before his death on April 12, 1945.[14]

Results
Roosevelt decided that the letter required action, and authorized the creation of the Advisory
Committee on Uranium. The committee was chaired by Lyman James Briggs, the Director of the
Bureau of Standards (currently the National Institute of Standards and Technology), with
Adamson and Hoover as its other members. It convened for the first time on October 21. The
meeting was also attended by Fred L. Mohler from the Bureau of Standards, Richard B. Roberts of
the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Szilard, Teller and Wigner. Adamson was skeptical
about the prospect of building an atomic bomb, but was willing to authorize $6,000 ($100,000 in
current USD) for the purchase of uranium and graphite for Szilard and Fermi's experiment.[19]

The Advisory Committee on Uranium was the beginning of the US government's effort to develop
an atomic bomb, but it did not vigorously pursue the development of a weapon. It was superseded
by the National Defense Research Committee in 1940,[20] and then the Office of Scientific
Research and Development in 1941.[21] The Frisch–Peierls memorandum and the British Maud
Reports eventually prompted Roosevelt to authorize a full-scale development effort in January
1942.[22] The work of fission research was taken over by the United States Army Corps of
Engineers's Manhattan District in June 1942, which directed an all-out bomb development
program known as the Manhattan Project.[23]

Einstein did not work on the Manhattan Project. The Army and Vannevar Bush denied him the
work clearance needed in July 1940, saying his pacifist leanings and celebrity status made him a
security risk.[24] At least one source states that Einstein did clandestinely contribute some
equations to the Manhattan Project.[25] Einstein was allowed to work as a consultant to the United
States Navy's Bureau of Ordnance.[26][27] He had no knowledge of the atomic bomb's development,
and no influence on the decision of any being used.[14][24]

According to Linus Pauling, Einstein later regretted signing the letter because it led to the
development and use of the atomic bomb in combat, adding that Einstein had justified his decision
because of the greater danger that Nazi Germany would develop the bomb first.[28] In 1947
Einstein told Newsweek magazine that "had I known that the Germans would not succeed in
developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing."[24][29]

See also
Alexander Sachs' role in bringing President Roosevelt's attention to the possibility of an atomic
bomb
Frisch–Peierls memorandum
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Georgy Flyorov, who wrote a similar letter to the Soviet leadership to start their atomic research
program
List of most expensive books and manuscripts
Nuclear weapons and the United States
Szilard petition

Notes
1. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 10–13.
2. GB patent 630726 (https://worldwide.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=GB630726),
Leo Szilard, "Improvements in or relating to the transmutation of chemical elements", published
1949-09-28, issued 1936-03-30
3. Lanouette & Silard 1992, pp. 132–136.
4. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 13–14.
5. Flügge, Siegfried (August 15, 1939). "Die Ausnutzung der Atomenergie. Vom
Laboratoriumsversuch zur Uranmaschine – Forschungsergebnisse in Dahlem". Deutsche
Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). No. 387, Supplement.
6. Flügge, Siegfried (1939). "Kann der Energieinhalt der Atomkerne technisch nutzbar gemacht
werden?". Die Naturwissenschaften (in German). 27 (23/24): 402–410.
Bibcode:1939NW.....27..402F (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1939NW.....27..402F).
doi:10.1007/BF01489507 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01489507). S2CID 40646390 (https://
api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:40646390).
7. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 15–16.
8. U.S. patent 1,781,541 (https://patents.google.com/patent/US1781541)
9. Dannen, Gene (February 9, 1998). "Leo Szilard the Inventor: A Slideshow" (http://www.dannen.
com/budatalk.html). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20200820115244/http://www.danne
n.com/budatalk.html) from the original on August 20, 2020. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
10. Lanouette & Silard 1992, pp. 198–200.
11. Lanouette & Silard 1992, p. 199.
12. Lanouette & Silard 1992, pp. 200–201.
13. Lanouette & Silard 1992, p. 202.
14. "Albert Einstein's Letters to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt" (http://hypertextbook.com/ew
orld/einstein.shtml). E-World. 1997. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120417084102/htt
p://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml) from the original on April 17, 2012. Retrieved
October 9, 2013.
15. Gowing 1964, pp. 40–45.
16. Lanouette & Silard 1992, p. 207.
17. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 17.
18. "President Roosevelt's response to Dr. Einstein Letter, Atomic Archive" (http://www.atomicarchi
ve.com/Docs/Begin/Roosevelt.shtml). Atomic Archive. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20
131022012136/http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Begin/Roosevelt.shtml) from the original
on October 22, 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
19. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 20–21.
20. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 24–26.
21. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 41.
22. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 49.
23. Hewlett & Anderson 1962, p. 75.

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24. "The Manhattan Project" (http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/einstein/peace-and-


war/the-manhattan-project). American Museum of Natural History. Archived (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20130922142220/http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/einstein/peace-a
nd-war/the-manhattan-project) from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved October 9,
2013.
25. Genius, Albert Einstein, National Geographic 2017
26. "Einstein Exhibit – Nuclear Age" (http://www.aip.org/history/einstein/nuclear1.htm). American
Institute of Physics. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140330175748/http://www.aip.org/
history/einstein/nuclear1.htm) from the original on March 30, 2014. Retrieved October 9, 2013.
27. "Prof. Einstein Working on Explosives for U.S. Navy Department" (http://www.jta.org/1943/06/1
6/archive/prof-einstein-working-on-explosives-for-u-s-navy-department#ixzz2hAKb5QVh).
Jewish Telegraphic Agency. June 16, 1943. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2013121209
4517/http://www.jta.org/1943/06/16/archive/prof-einstein-working-on-explosives-for-u-s-navy-de
partment#ixzz2hAKb5QVh) from the original on December 12, 2013. Retrieved October 9,
2013.
28. "Scientist Tells of Einstein's A-bomb Regrets" (https://web.archive.org/web/20061108075927/htt
p://virtor.bar.admin.ch/pdf/ausstellung_einstein_fr/der_pazifist/A-Bomb_Regrets.pdf) (PDF).
The Philadelphia Bulletin. May 13, 1955. Archived from the original (http://virtor.bar.admin.ch/p
df/ausstellung_einstein_fr/der_pazifist/A-Bomb_Regrets.pdf) (PDF) on November 8, 2006.
29. "Einstein, the Man Who Started It All" (https://archive.org/details/sim_newsweek-us_1947-03-1
0_29_10/page/n55/). Newsweek. March 10, 1947.

References
Gowing, Margaret (1964). Britain and Atomic Energy, 1935–1945. London: Macmillan
Publishing. OCLC 3195209 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/3195209).
Hewlett, Richard G.; Anderson, Oscar E. (1962). The New World, 1939–1946 (A History of the
United States Atomic Energy Commission) (https://www.governmentattic.org/5docs/TheNewW
orld1939-1946.pdf) (PDF). Vol. 1. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Bibcode:1962PhT....15l..62H (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1962PhT....15l..62H).
doi:10.1063/1.3057919 (https://doi.org/10.1063%2F1.3057919). ISBN 978-0-520-07186-5.
OCLC 637004643 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/637004643).
Lanouette, William; Silard, Bela (1992). Genius in the Shadows: A Biography of Leo Szilárd:
The Man Behind The Bomb (https://archive.org/details/geniusinshadowsa00lano). New York:
Charles Scribner's Sons. ISBN 978-0-684-19011-2.

Further reading
Hargittai, István (2006). The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth
Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-517845-6. OCLC 62084304 (https://
www.worldcat.org/oclc/62084304).

External links
Reproduction of 1939 Einstein–Szilárd letter (http://www.dannen.com/ae-fdr.html)
Roosevelt correspondence with Einstein and Szilárd (http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box5/f
olo64.html), FDR library, Marist University
Einstein and Szilard re-enact their meeting (https://web.archive.org/web/20150603014926/htt
p://www.t3licensing.com/license/clip/49312131_022.do) for the film Atomic Power (1946)

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