Making of the Atomic Bomb

  58. banding together: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 22.

  59. “the parliamentary . . . generations”: ibid.

  60. “I reached . . . Switzerland”: ibid., p. 13.

  61. Chadwick Nature letter: Chadwick (1932a).

  62. Chadwick Proc. Roy. Soc. paper: Chadwick (1932b).

  63. Szilard found orphan: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 16.

  64. “the liberation . . . bombs”: ibid.

  65. “oppressed . . . application”: Wells (1914), p. 46.

  66. “This book . . . time”: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 16.

  67. “I met . . . system”: ibid.

  68. Such must . . . nuclear physics: ibid., pp. 12-13.

  69. “All I . . . too bad”: ibid., p. 13.

  70. Things got . . . Meitner: ibid.

  71. “They all . . . happening”: ibid.

  72. “He looked . . . eyes”: ibid., p. 14.

  73. “I took . . . day earlier”: ibid.

  74. £1595: Bank receipt dated 6 September 1933 in Szilard Papers.

  75. £854: Letter to “Béla” dated 31 August 1933 in Szilard Papers.

  76. “I was . . . Association”: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 17.

  77. “attempted . . . developments”: The Times, p. 6.

  78. “Lord Rutherford . . . irritated me”: Szilard (1972), p. 529.

  79. “This sort of . . . Row”: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 17.

  80. “I was . . . be wrong”: Szilard (1972), p. 530.

  81. “It occurred . . . may react”: ibid., p. 183.

  82. Polanyi: Semenoff (1935), p. 5.

  83. “As the light . . . the street”: Szilard (1972), p. 530.

  84. “it suddenly . . . atomic bombs”: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 17.

  Chapter 2: Atoms and Void

  85. “For by convention . . . void”: quoted in Scientific American (1949), p. 49.

  86. “It seems . . . formed them”: in Optics, quoted in Guillemin (1968), p. 15.

  87. “Though in . . . and weight”: quoted in Pais (1982), p. 82.

  88. “It is . . . pursuit in life”: Planck (1949), p. 13.

  89. “the process . . . by any means”: ibid., p. 17.

  90. “Thus . . . is settled”: W. Ostwald, at a meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Naturforscher und Ärzte in 1895, quoted in Pais (1982), p. 83.

  91. “The consistent . . . finite atoms”: in 1883, quoted in ibid., p. 82.

  92. “What the atom . . . as ever”: quoted in Chadwick (1954), p. 436.

  93. “republic of science”: Polanyi (1962).

  94. “a highly . . . free society”: ibid., p. 5.

  95. “Millions are . . . committed”: Polanyi (1974), p. 63.

  96. “the established . . . letter”: Polanyi (1946), p. 43.

  97. “uncertainties . . . nature”: ibid.

  98. “a full initiation”: ibid.

  99. “close personal . . . master”: ibid.

  100. “what do we . . . the world”: Feynman (1963), p. 2-1.

  101. “no one . . . accepted”: Polanyi (1946), p. 45.

  102. “Any account . . . is untrue”: Polanyi (1974), p. 51.

  103. an analogy: Polanyi (1962), p. 6ff.

  104. “Let them . . . consequence”: ibid., p. 7.

  105. “growing points”: ibid., p. 15.

  106. “The authority . . . above them”: ibid., p. 14. His emphasis.

  107. “This network . . . neighborhoods”: ibid.

  108. “Physics . . . those events”: Wigner (1981), p. 8.

  109. three broad criteria: cf. discussion in Polanyi (1962), p. 10ff.

  110. one thousand . . . physicists: cf. Segrè (1980), p. 9.

  111. “his genius . . . astonished”: Chadwick (1954), p. 440. Details of Rutherford’s childhood selected from Eve (1939), Feather (1940) and Crowther (1974).

  112. sickening insecurity: the phrase is C. P. Snow’s in Snow (1967), p. 11.

  113. “That’s the last potato”: Eve (1939), p. 11.

  114. “Now Lord . . . mine”: ibid., p. 342.

  115. “Magnetization of . . . discharges”: 1894, in Rutherford (1962), pp. 25-57.

  116. the world record: Marsden (1962), p. 3.

  117. “like an . . . lion’s skin”: Eve (1939), p. 24.

  118. “A magnetic detector . . . applications”: Rutherford (1962), pp. 80-104.

  119. Marconi . . . in September: cf. Eve (1939), p. 35.

  120. “The reason . . . the future”: ibid., p. 23.

  121. “You cannot serve . . . time”: quoted in Kapitza (1980), p. 267.

  122. “one curious . . . mistakes”: Snow (1967), p. 7.

  123. “I believe . . . commercially”: Oliphant (1972), p. 140ff.

  124. “in his . . . cultured man”: Marsden (1962), p. 16.

  125. “before tempting . . . more”: ibid., p. 3.

  126. “I hope . . . by myself”: Eve (1939), p. 34.

  127. Bank of England sealing wax: Blackett (1933), p. 72: “It is curious that the most universally successful vacuum cement available for many years should have been a material of common use for quite other purposes. At one time it might have been hard to find in an English laboratory an apparatus which did not use red Bank of England sealing-wax as a vacuum cement.”

  128. “the almost . . . passes”: J. J. Thompson in Conn and Turner (1965), p. 53.

  129. “the corpuscle . . . cathode ray”: Crowther (1974), p. 123.

  130. “a number . . . electrification”: J. J. Thompson in Conn and Turner (1965), p. 97.

  131. Thompson . . . discovering X rays: cf. ibid., p. 33.

  132. Frederick Smith: cf. Andrade (1957), p. 444.

  133. “at a . . . discharge-tube”: J. J. Thompson in Conn and Turner (1965), p. 33.

  134. Röntgen, Becquerel: these details from Segrè (1980), p. 19ff.

  135. “exposed . . . on the negative”: quoted in ibid., p. 28.

  136. “expecting . . . in the dark”: quoted in ibid., p. 29.

  137. “There are . . . [beta] radiation”: Rutherford (1962), p. 175.

  138. P. V. Villard: Segrè (1980), p. 50.

  139. “The McGill . . . cannot complain”: Eve (1939), p. 57.

  140. In 1900 . . . radioactive gas: “A radioactive substance emitted from thorium compounds.” Rutherford (1962), pp. 220-231.

  141. “At the beginning . . . be examined”: Soddy (1953), p. 124ff.

  142. “conveyed the . . . gas!”: ibid., p. 126.

  143. an “isotope”: Soddy (1913), p. 400.

  144. “for more than . . . an institution”: Soddy (1953), p. 127.

  145. “similar . . . cathode rays”: Rutherford (1962), p. 549.

  146. “It may . . . molecular charge”: ibid., p. 606ff.

  147. “playful suggestion . . . in smoke”: Eve (1939), p. 102.

  148. “some fool . . . unawares”: ibid.

  149. “It is . . . secret”: Soddy (1953), p. 95.

  150. “My idea . . . romances”: quoted in Dickson (1969), p. 228.

  151. “After a very . . . radium rays”: Eve (1939), p. 93.

  152. “I may . . . keep going”: ibid., p. 123.

  153. “they are . . . moving”: ibid., p. 127.

  154. “it remained . . . true physicist”: R. H. Fowler, quoted in ibid., p. 429.

  155. An eyewitness: ibid., p. 183.

  156. reported the month before: “The Nature of the a Particle,” Nov. 3, 1908; Rutherford (1963), pp. 134-135.

  157. “After some days . . . vessel”: ibid., p. 145.

  158. “In this . . . style”: Russell (1950), p. 91.

  159. “I see . . . his apparatus”: quoted in Eve (1939), p. 239.

  160. “supper in . . . the motor”: Russell (1950), p. 88.

  161. his handshake: Oliphant (1972), p. 22.

  162. “he gave . . . physical contact”: ibid.

  163. He could still be mortified: cf. his response to the bishop in gaiters who presume
d to compare the South Island to Stoke-on-Trent in Russell (1950), p. 96.

  164. “He was . . . tricks”: ibid., p. 89.

  165. “Youthful . . . fools gladly”: Weizmann (1949), p. 118.

  166. “Scattering of . . . rays”: Feather (1940), p. 117.

  167. “I was . . . to taste”: Eve (1939), p. 384.

  168. Philipp Lenard: cf. Andrade (1957), p. 441.

  169. 100 million volts: Rutherford’s calculation in 1906 cited in Feather (1940), p. 131.

  170. “Such results . . . electrical forces”: ibid.

  171. rang a bell: Blackett (1933), p. 77.

  172. But the experiment was troubled: details from Marsden (1962), p. 8ff.

  173. “See if . . . surface”: ibid., p. 8.

  174. “I remember . . . told him”: ibid.

  175. “If the . . . be required”: H. Geiger and E. Marsden, “On a diffuse reflection of α-particles” in Conn and Turner (1965), p. 135ff.

  176. a first quick intuition: cf. Norman Feather in Rutherford (1963), p. 22.

  177. “It was . . . minute nucleus”: quoted in Conn and Turner (1965), p. 136ff.

  178. sheets of good paper: cf. photographs of these historic notes in Rutherford (1963), following p. 240.

  179. a model . . . pendulum: cf. Eve (1939), p. 197.

  180. “largely . . . people”: Chadwick OHI, AIP, p. 11.

  181. a rare snake: ibid. Cf. also Chadwick (1954), p. 442n.

  182. “a most . . . it”: Chadwick OHI, AIP, p. 12.

  183. “a central . . . in amount”: Rutherford (1963), p. 212.

  184. Nagaoka had postulated: cf. Conn and Turner (1965), p. 112ff, for partial text.

  185. “Campbell tells . . . optical effects”: quoted in Feather (1940), p. 136.

  186. “supposed to . . . rotating electrons”: Rutherford (1963), p. 254.

  187. “for the . . . in Manchester”: Nagaoka refers in his letter to “your paper on the calculation of alpha particles which was in progress when I visited Manchester.” That paper, “The number of a particles emitted by uranium and thorium and by uranium minerals,” was written with Hans Geiger, appeared in the Philosophical Magazine in Oct. 1910 and was sent July 1910. For the text of Nagaoka’s letter cf. Eve (1939), p. 200.

  188. the same theoretical defect: cf. discussion in Heilbron and Kuhn (1969), p. 241ff.

  189. “Bohr . . . radioactive work”: Eve (1939), p. 218.

  Chapter 3: Tvi

  190. Tvi: conversations with Josiah Thompson greatly enlightened this discussion.

  191. “There came . . . Niels Bohr!”: Eve (1939), p. 218.

  192. “an enormous . . . head”: Snow (1981), p. 19.

  193. “much more . . . later years”: ibid.

  194. “he took . . . the matter”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 78.

  195. “uttering his . . . truth”: quoted in Pais (1982), p. 417.

  196. “his assurance . . . vivid images”: Frisch (1979), p. 94.

  197. “he would . . . as criticism”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 79.

  198. “Not often . . . of trance”: quoted in Pais (1982), pp. 416-417.

  199. “gloomy . . . smile”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 215.

  200. “keen worshipper”: Harald Høffding, quoted in ibid., p. 13.

  201. “lovable personality”: the surgeon Ole Chievitz, quoted in ibid., p. 15.

  202. great interrelationships: Petersen (1963), p. 9: “Bohr has said that as far back as he could remember he liked to dream of great interrelationships.”

  203. speaking in paradoxes: according to Høffding in his Memoirs, quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 13.

  204. “I was . . . different character”: Bohr OHI, AIP, p. 1.

  205. “At a . . . his imagination”: Rozental (1967), p. 15.

  206. “the special . . . the family”: quoted in ibid.

  207. “Even as . . . fundamental problems”: Petersen (1963), p. 9.

  208. trouble learning to write: cf. Segrè (1980), p. 119.

  209. “There runs . . . two brothers”: Rozental (1967), p. 23.

  210. “à deux”: Vilhelm Slomann, quoted in ibid., p. 25.

  211. “In my . . . than I”: Bohr OHI, AIP, p. 1.

  212. Harald . . . told whoever asked: cf. for example Richard Courant in Rozental (1967), p. 301.

  213. a stick used as a probe: e.g., Rozental (1967), p. 306.

  214. “believed literally . . . of faith”: quoted in ibid., p. 74.

  215. “I see . . . his heart”: quoted without citation in Moore (1966), p. 35. Moore was allowed access to some of Bohr’s unpublished private correspondence.

  216. Bohr drafted . . . private letters: cf. Rozental (1967), p. 30.

  217. “If the . . . will come”: quoted in Cline (1965), p. 214.

  218. Bohr’s anxiety: this discussion is based on Lewis S. Feuer’s excellent analysis in Feuer (1982) but differs in emphasis and to some extent in conclusions. Holton (1973) is also an essential source.

  219. “a young . . . unusual resolution”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 74.

  220. “an unfinished . . . in [Denmark]”: Bohr (1963), p. 13.

  221. “a remarkably . . . position [as human beings]”: ibid.

  222. “Every one . . . his initiation”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 121.

  223. “very soberly . . . social activities”: Bohr (1963), p. 13.

  224. “[I start] . . . bottomless abyss”: ibid.

  225. “Bohr kept . . . studies itself”: Oppenheimer (1963), II, pp. 25-26.

  226. “Certainly I . . . to madness”: quoted in Rosenfeld (1963), p. 48.

  227. “Thus on . . . becomes actor”: quoted in ibid., p. 49.

  228. “Bohr would . . . emphasized”: Rozental (1967), p. 121.

  229. the image that recurred: cf. ibid., pp. 77, 327-328. Examples abound in the written record.

  230. “suspended in language”: quoted in Petersen (1963), p. 10.

  231. “Nur die . . . die Wahrheit”: quoted in Holton (1973), p. 148.

  232. “I took . . . with Høffding”: Bohr OHI, AIP, p. 1.

  233. Harald Høffding: cf. biographical note at Bohr (1972), p. xx.

  234. “despair”: Holton (1973) notes this confession on p. 144.

  235. Møller taught Kierkegaard: cf. Thompson (1973), p. 88.

  236. “my youth’s . . . departed friend”: quoted in ibid.

  237. The Danish word . . . “ambiguity”: paraphrased from ibid., p. 155.

  238. “His leading . . . the individual”: quoted in Holton (1973), p. 146.

  239. “Only in . . . of continuity”: quoted in ibid., p. 147.

  240. “At that . . . multivalued functions”: Bohr OHI, AIP, p. 1.

  241. the solid work: cf. Bohr (1972), p. 4.

  242. “took such . . . the flame”: Rosenfeld (1979), p. 325.

  243. “the experiments . . . the paper”: quoted in Rosenfeld (1963), p. 39.

  244. “not a professor”: Bohr (1972), p. 10.

  245. “This is . . . ever read”: ibid., p. 501.

  246. “envy would . . . the rooftops”: ibid., p. 95, adjusting the idiom.

  247. “four months . . . rough drafts”: ibid.

  248. “unpractical”: Bohr OHI, AIP, p. 2.

  249. “He made . . . something good”: quoted in Nielsen (1963), pp. 27-28.

  250. “in deepest . . . my father”: Bohr (1972), p. 295.

  251. “Dr. Bohr . . . a record”: quoted in ibid., pp. 98-99.

  252. “Oh Harald! . . . little fireplace”: ibid., p. 519.

  253. “under threat . . . stand it”: ibid., p. 523.

  254. “for an . . . blustering wind”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 44, adjusting the idiom.

  255. “absolute geniuses . . . you out”: quoted in ibid., p. 40.

  256. “I wonder . . . his ideas”: quoted in Moore (1966), p. 32.

  257. “I’m longing . . . silly talk”: quoted in ibid., p. 33.

  258. “
It takes . . . was different”: Bohr OHI, AIP, pp. 13-14.

  259. “came down . . . his name”: Bohr (1963), p. 31. My chronology of Bohr’s visits to Manchester and his arrangements to work there generally follows the plausible conjectures of Heilbron and Kuhn (1969), p. 233, n. 57.

  260. “just then . . . atomic nucleus”: Bohr (1963), p. 31.

  261. Bohr had matters on his mind: cf. his letter to C. W. Oseen on Dec. 1, 1911: “I am at the moment very enthusiastic about the quantum theory (I mean its experimental side), but I am still not sure this is not due to my ignorance.” Quoted in Heilbron and Kuhn (1969), p. 230, with a following discussion.

  262. “the patience . . . his mind”: Bohr (1963), p. 32.

  263. “one of . . . of Rutherford”: ibid., p. 31.

  264. “Bohr’s different . . . football player!”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 46.

  265. eleven Nobel Prize winners: cf. Zuckerman (1977), p. 103.

  266. Manchester is always here: cited by A. S. Russell in Birks (1962), p. 93ff.

  267. “an introductory . . . research”: Bohr (1963), p. 32.

  268. Bohr learned about radiochemistry: cf. ibid., pp. 32-33.

  269. “Rutherford . . . thought . . . his atom”: Bohr OHI, AIP, p. 13.

  270. “Ask Bohr!”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 46.

  271. “It could . . . quickly”: Heilbron and Kuhn (1969), p. 238; Bohr (1972), p. 559; selecting the most idiomatic phrases from each translation.

  272. “getting along . . . to you!”: Bohr (1972), p. 561, adjusting the idiom.

  273. July 22: Bohr to Harald Bohr, ibid.

  274. “to be . . . few weeks”: quoted in Heilbron and Kuhn (1969), p. 256.

  275. “a very . . . these things”: quoted in ibid.

  276. “One must . . . mechanical sort”: quoted in ibid., p. 214. My discussion here generally follows this excellent monograph.

  277. “Later measurements . . . to be”: Planck (1949), p. 41.

  278. “a universal . . . of action”: ibid., p. 43.

  279. “The spectra . . . a butterfly”: quoted in Heilbron and Kuhn (1969), p. 257, n. 117.

  280. “As soon . . . to me”: quoted in ibid., p. 265.

  281. “There is . . . its advent”: Darrow (1952), p. 53.

  282. “There appears . . . to stop”: quoted in Bohr (1963), p. 41.

  283. “Every change . . . possible transitions”: quoted in Feuer (1982), p. 137.

  284. “principal assumptions”: cf. Shamos (1959), p. 338.

  285. “Bohr characteristically . . . phenomena”: Rosenfeld (1979), p. 318.