SZILARD, LEO (+) T. A. CHALMERS.

Detection of neutrons liberated from beryllium by gamma rays: A new technique for inducing radioactivity (+) Chemical Separation of the Radioactive Element from its Bombarded Isotope in the Fermi Effect.

London, Macmillan & Co., 1934.

Royal8vo. Bound in contemporary half cloth with paper title label to spine. In "Nature", Vol. 134, July - December, 1934. Stamp to first two leaves. Light wear to spine, otherwise a nice and clean copy. Pp. 462-63; 494-5. [Entire volume offered: LXVIII, 1020 pp.]


First appearance of these seminal papers describing the emission of neutrons from beryllium when bombarded with high-energy gamma radiation. In this landmark study Leo Szilard and Thomas A. Chalmers demonstrate a practical method for producing neutrons and detecting them through induced radioactivity: one of the most important inventions in the second half of the twentieth century, namely the nuclear chain reaction.
Szilárd realized that if a nuclear reaction produced neutrons, which then caused further nuclear reactions, the process might be self-perpetuating, thereby anticipating Hahn and Strassman's discovery of fission by five years.

"Nuclear Scientist Szilard started work in nuclear physics in 1934, at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, England, and by the late 1930s, he had become part of the distinguished group of top atomic scientists. In London, Szilard started to experiment with Thomas A. Chalmers on radioactive elements. They produced a method for the separation of a radioactive element from the mass of the stable element. They also separated photo neutrons from beryllium, a process that ultimately resulted in the possibility for inducing the fission process that was of critical importance for war-related nuclear research. This discovery later provided the key to the problem of the chain reaction. Szilard also found that radium-beryllium photo neutrons represented a useful tool in nuclear research. His British experiments proved of value for the discovery and investigation of neutron emission of uranium on which a chain reaction is based. Szilard was invited to the Clarendon Laboratory in Oxford in 1935." (DSB).

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