Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The history of the discovery of nuclear fission

  • Published:
Foundations of Chemistry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Following with the discovery of the electron by J. J. Thomson at the end of the nineteenth century a steady elucidation of the structure of the atom occurred over the next 40 years culminating in the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938–1939. The significant steps after the electron discovery were: discovery of the nuclear atom by Rutherford (Philos Mag 6th Ser 21:669–688, 1911), the transformation of elements by Rutherford (Philos Mag 37:578–587, 1919), discovery of artificial radioactivity by Joliot-Curie and Joliot-Curie (Comptes Rendus Acad Sci Paris 198:254–256, 1934), and the discovery of the neutron by Chadwick (Nature 129:312, 1932a, Proc R Soc Ser A 136:692–708, 1932b; Proc R Soc Lond Ser A 136:744–748, 1932c). The neutron furnished scientists with a particle able to penetrate atomic nuclei without expenditure of large amounts of energy. From 1934 until 1938–1939 investigations of the reaction between a neutron and uranium were carried out by E. Fermi in Rome, O. Hahn, L. Meitner and F. Strassmann in Berlin and I. Curie and P. Savitch in Paris. Results were interpreted as the formation of transuranic elements. After sorting out complex radio-chemistry and radio-physics O. Hahn and F. Strassmann came to the conclusion, beyond their belief, that the uranium nucleus split into smaller fragments, that is nuclear fission. This was soon followed in 1939 by its theoretical interpretation by L. Mietner and O. Frisch.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. The volume by Davis and Falconer contains facsimiles of some of the relevant papers by J. J. Thomson.

  2. Stoney initially called the unit “electrine” in 1874, see (Stranges 1982, p. 26).

  3. Harvey Fletcher in a posthumous publication described that he worked for his Ph. D. on the oil-drop experiment at the suggestion of Millikan, and after some discussion he was “left with the impression that [he] had suggested oil” (Fletcher 1982). He also carried out the first experiments before Millikan was aware. Millikan in his autobiography acknowledges that the “oil-drop technique, as initiated by Harvey Fletcher and myself and as carried out with much skill and more elaboration by Fletcher in his thesis.” Fletcher claims Millikan said he could not be a co-author of the first paper (Millikan 1911) as Ph. D. students had to author their own work.

  4. Conn and Turner (1965) provide an excellent description and documentation of the discoveries associated with the atomic nucleus.

  5. Boorse and Motz (1966a, b) contains excerpts from papers and discussion on the research on the atom.

  6. It is regrettable that Rutherford died in 1937 from an unsuccessful operation on a strangulated hernia before the discovery of nuclear fission.

  7. Chadwick did not have a powerful polonium source until a supply of disused radon ampoules became available (Dahl 2002, p. 104).

  8. C. P. Snow was a contemporary of many of the scientists of this time; he being initially a scientist, and his book The Physicists (1981) is a narrative from the discovery of the electron to the development of the atomic bomb.

  9. See also a letter from Chadwick to Bohr reproduced in Brown (1997, pp. 365–366).

  10. The neutron has a half-life around 10 min. and decays n0 → p+ + e−, but it is not a close combination of a proton and electron.

  11. The word “finally” may have an additional meaning, namely reflecting the Joliot-Curies’ pleasure at discovering something in radiochemistry before anyone else.

  12. In later years after the discovery of nuclear fission the cyclotron became the neutron source of choice.

  13. Quotation from Bernstein (2007, pp. 30–31).

  14. See Graetzer and Anderson (1971, p. 18).

  15. It is possible Noddack did not have the materials and set up to pursue her idea.

  16. Translations of these papers are given in Graetzer and Anderson 1971; Hahn 1967; and Hahn 1950.

  17. Actinium is in the same group as La and not far removed from uranium.

  18. It should be noted that Ba and Kr would not be the only products.

  19. For example, following the discovery of the first inert gas xenon compound (Bartlett 1962) a flurry of publications appeared on xenon compounds.

  20. The scientists were Otto Hahn, Max von Laue, Walther Gerlach, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Hartek, Carl von Weizsäcker, Karl Wirtz, Erich Bagge, Horst Korsching and Kurt Diebner.

  21. Bernstein’s book is an edited version of the secret recordings of conversations by the German scientists.

  22. Actually Leo Szilard had predicted a chain reaction with neutrons well before fission was discovered in 1934, initiated in his mind from reading Wells (1914), and from Rutherford’s supposedly “moonshine” comment on the possibility of industrial nuclear energy (Weart and Szilard 1978, pp. 15–18).

References

  • Abelson, P.: Cleavage of the uranium nucleus. Phys. Rev. 55, 418 (1939)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C.D.: The positive electron. Phys. Rev. 43, 491–494 (1933)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, H.L.: In: Wilson, J. (ed.) All in our Time: The Reminiscences of Twelve Nuclear Pioneers), pp. 66–104. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Chicago (1975)

  • Andrade, E.N.C.: Rutherford and the Nature of the Atom. Heinemann, London (1965)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bartlett, N.: Xenon hexafluoroplitinate(V) Xe+[PtF6]−. In: Proceedings of the Chemical Society, p. 218 (1962)

  • Bernstein, J.: Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element. Joseph Henry Press, Washington (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, J. (ed.): Hitler’s Uranium Club: The Secret Recordings at Farm Hall. Copernicus Books (Springer), New York (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: On the constitution of atoms and molecules. Philos. Mag. 26, 1–19 (1913)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: The Theory of Spectra and Atomic Constitution: Three Essays. The University Press, Cambridge (1922)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: Chemistry and quantum theory of atomic constitution, Faraday lecture 1930. J. Chem. Soc. Part 1, 349–384 (1932)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: Neutron capture and nuclear constitution. Nature 137, 344–348 (1936)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: Disintergration of heavy nuclei. Nature 143, 330 (1939a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: Resonance in uranium and thorium disintegrations and the phenomenon of nuclear fission. Phys. Rev. 55, 418 (1939b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N., Wheeler, J.A.: The mechanism of nuclear fission. Phys. Rev. 56, 426–450 (1939)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boorse, H.A., Motz, L. (eds.): The World of the Atom, vol. 1. Basic Books, New York and London (1966a)

    Google Scholar 

  • Boorse, H.A., Motz, L. (eds.): The World of the Atom, vol. 2. Basic Books, New York and London (1966b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bothe, W., Gentner, W.: Kernisomerie beim Brom. Naturwissenschaften 25, 284 (1937)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brian, D.: The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science. Wiley, Hoboken (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, A.: The Neutron and the Bomb: A Biography of Sir James Chadwick. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, J.: Rutherford: Scientist Supreme. AAS Publications, Christchurch (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chadwick, J.: The existence of a neutron. Proc. R. Soc. Ser. A 136, 692–708 (1932a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chadwick, J.: Discussion on the structure of atomic nuclei. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. A 136(830), 744–748 (1932b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Chadwick, J.: Possible existence of a neutron. Nature 129, 312 (1932c)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conn, G.K.T., Turner, H.D.: The Evolution of the Nuclear Atom. Iliffe Books, American Elsevier, London and New York (1965)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornwall, J.: Hitler’s Scientists: Science, War and the Devil’s Pact. Penguin, London (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Corson, D.R., Thornton, R.L.: Disintergration of uranium. Phys. Rev. 55, 509 (1939)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, E., Sime, R.L., Walker, M.: A nobel tale of wartime injustice. Nature 382, 393–395 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curie, E.: Madam Curie. William Heinmann, London and Toronto (1938)

    Google Scholar 

  • Curie, I., Joliot, F.: Emission de protons de grande vitesse par les substances hydrogénées sous l’influencedes rayons gamma trés pénétrants (The emission of protons of high velocity from hydrogenous materials irradiated with very penetrating gamma rays). Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris 194, 273 (1932)

    Google Scholar 

  • Curie, I., Savitch, P.: Sur la nature du radioélément de périod 3.5 heures formé dans l’uranium irradiation by neutrons (Concerning the nature of the radioactive element with 3.5-hour half-life, formed from uranium irradiated by neutrons). Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris 206, 1643–1644 (1938a)

    Google Scholar 

  • Curie, I., Savitch, P.: On the radioelements formed in uranium irradiated with neutrons—Part II. Journal de Physique et le Radium 9(7), 355–359 (1938b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, P.F.: From Nuclear Transmutation to Nuclear Fission. Institute of Physics Publishing, Bristol and Philadelphia (2002)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, E.A., Falconer, I.J.: J.J. Thomson and the Discovery of the Electron. Taylor and Francis, London (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dirac, P.A.M.: A theory of electrons and protons. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. Ser. A 128, 360–365 (1930)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fermi, E.: Radioactivity induced by neutron bombardment. Nature 133, 757 (1934a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ede, A.: The Chemical Element: A Historical Perspective. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Shamos, M.H. (ed.): Great Experiments in Physics: Firsthand Accounts from Galileo to Einstein. Dover Publications, New York (1959)

    Google Scholar 

  • Farmelo, G.: The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom. Basic Books, New York (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fermi, L.: Atoms in the Family: My Life with Enrico Fermi. George Allen and Unwin, London (1954)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fermi, E.: Experimental production of a divergent chain reaction. Am. J. Phys. 20, 536–541 (1952)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fermi, E.: Possible production of elements of atomic number higher than 92. Nature 133, 898–899 (1934b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fermi, E., Amaldi, E., D’Agostino, O., Rasetti, F., Segre, E.: Artificial radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment. Proc. R. Soc. Ser. A 146, 483–500 (1934)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fletcher, H.: My work with Millikan on the oil-drop experiment. Phys. Today 35(6), 43–48 (1982)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frisch, O.: What Little I can Remember. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1979)

    Google Scholar 

  • Frisch, O.R.: Physical evidence for the division of heavy nuclei under neutron bombardment. Nature 143, 276 (1939)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gamow, G.: Atomic Energy in Cosmic and Human Life: Fifty Years of Radioactivity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1947)

    Google Scholar 

  • Geiger, H., Rutherford, E.: On the scattering of α-particles by matter. Proc. R. Soc. Ser. A 81, 174–177 (1908)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geiger, H., Rutherford, E.: The scattering of α -particles by matter. Proc. R. Soc. Ser. A 83, 492–504 (1910)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geiger, H., Marsden, E., Rutherford, E.: On a diffuse reflection of the α particles. Proc. R. Soc. Ser. A 82, 495–500 (1909)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Graetzer, H.G., Anderson, D.L. (eds.): The Discovery of Nuclear Fission: A Documentary History. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York (1971)

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosse, A.V., Agruss, M.S.: Fermi’s Element 93. Nature 134, 773 (1934)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O.: New Atoms: Progress and Some Memories. Elsevier, New York and Amsterdam (1950)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O.: Otto Hahn: A Scientific Autobiography. MacGibbon and Kee, London (1967)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O., Meitner, L., Strassmann, F.: Einige weitere Bemerkungen uber die kunstlichen Umwandlungsprodukte beim Uran (Some Further Observations Concerning the Induced Transmutation Products of Uranium). Naturwissenschaften 23, 544 (1935)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O., Meitner, L.: Uber die kunstliche Umwandlung des Urans durch Neutronen (Concerning the induced transmutations of uranium by neutrons). Naturwissenschaften 23, 37–38 (1935a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O., Meitner, L.: Uber die kunstliche Umwandlung des Urans durch Neutronen, II. Mitteil. (Concerning the induced transmutations of uranium by neutrons, 2nd Communication). Naturwissenschaften 23, 230–231 (1935b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O., Strassmann, F.: Ober die Entstehung yon Radiumisotopen aus Uran durch Bestrahlen mit schnellen und verlangsamten Neutronen (Concerning the creation in radium isotopes from uranium by irradiation with fast and slow neutrons). Naturwissenschaften 26, 755–756 (1938)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O., Strassmann, F.: Uber den Nachweis und das Verhalten der bei der Bestrahlung des Urans mittels Neutronen entstehenden Erdalkalimetalle (Concerning the existence of alkaline earth metals resulting from neutron irradiation of uranium). Naturwissenschaften 27, 11–15 (1939a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O., Strassmann, F.: Nachweis der Entstehung aktiver Bariumisotope aus Uran und Thorium durch Neutronenbestrahlung; Nachweis weiterer aktiver Bruchstficke bei der Uranspaltung (Proof of the formation of active isotopes of barium from uranium and thorium irradiated with neutrons; proof of the existence of more active fragments produced by uranium fission). Naturwissenschaften 27(6), 89–95 (1939b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, O., Meitner, L., Strassmann, F.: Ein neues langlebiges Umwandlungsprodukt in den Trans-Uranreihen (A new long-lived radioactive transmutation product belonging to the transuranic series). Naturwissenschaften 26, 475–476 (1938)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noddack, I.: Uber das Element 93 (On element 93). Zeitschrift fur Angewandte Chemie 47, 653–655 (1934)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joliot-Curie, I., Joliot-Curie, J.F.: A new type of radioactivity. Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris 198, 254–256 (1934)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jungk, R.: Brighter than a Thousand Suns: A Personal History of the Atomic Scientists. Penguin, Harmondsworth (1960)

    Google Scholar 

  • Krafft, F.: In: Shea, W.R.D. (ed.) Otto Hahn and the Rise of Nuclear Physics, pp. 135–165. Reidel Publishing, Dordrecht (1983)

  • Krebs, R.E.: The History and Use of Our Earth’s Chemical Elements, 2nd edn. Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawrence, E.O., Livingston, M.S.: Production of high speed ions. Phys. Rev. 42, 20–35 (1932)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKay, A.: The Making of the Atomic Age. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York (1984)

    Google Scholar 

  • McMillan, E., Abelson, P.: Radioactive Element 93. Phys. Rev. 57, 1185–1186 (1940)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMillan, E.: Radioactive recoils from uranium activated by neutrons. Phys. Rev. 55, 510 (1939)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meitner, L., Frisch, O.R.: Disintegration of uranium by neutrons: a new type of nuclear reaction. Nature 143, 239–240 (1939a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meitner, L., Frisch, O.R.: Products of the fission of the uranium nucleus. Nature 143, 471–472 (1939b)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meitner, L., Hahn, O.: Neue Umwandltmgsprozesse bei Bestrahlung des Llrans mit Neutronen (New transmutation processes from neutron irradiation of uranium). Naturwissenschaften 24, 158–159 (1936)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meitner, L., Hahn, O., Strassmann, F.: Concerning the series of transformations of uranium which are produced by neutron irradiation. Zeitschrift fur Physik 106, 249–270 (1937)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millikan, R.A.: The Autobiography of Robert A. Millikan. MacDonald, London (1951)

    Google Scholar 

  • Millikan, R.A.: The isolation of an ion. A precision measurement of its charge, and the correction of stokes’s law. Phys. Rev. 32, 349–397 (1911)

    Google Scholar 

  • Noddack, I.: Bemerkung zu den Untersuchungen von O. Hahn, L. Meitner und F. StraBmann uber die Produkte, die bei der Bestrahlung von Uran mit Neutronen entstehen. Naturwiss 27, 212–213 (1939)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Noddack, W., Tacke, I., Berg, O.: Die Ekamangane. Naturwissenschaften 13, 567–574 (1925)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perrier, C., Segre, E.: Some chemical properties of element 43. J. Chem. Phys. 5, 712–716 (1937)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preston, D.: Before the Fall-Out: The Human Chain Reaction from Marie Curie to Hiroshima. Doubleday, London (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, R.: The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon and Schuster, New York (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rife, P.: Lise Meitner and the Dawn of the Nuclear Age. Birkhauser, Boston (1999)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, E.: Retardation of the alpha particle from radium in passing through matter. Philos. Mag. 12, 134–146 (1906)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, E.: The scattering of α and β particles by matter and the structure of the atom. Philos. Mag. 6th Ser. 21, 669–688 (1911)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, E.: Collision of α particles with light atoms IV. An anomalous effect in nitrogen. Philos. Mag. 37, 578–587 (1919)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, E.: Nuclear constitution of atoms: Bakerian lecture. Proc. R. Soc. Ser. A 97, 374–400 (1920)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford, E., Chadwick, J.: Energy relations in artificial disintergration. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 25, 186–192 (1929)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scerri, E.R.: The Periodic Table: Its Story and Its Significance. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Segré, E.: An unsuccessful search for transuranic elements. Phys. Rev. 55, 1104–1105 (1939)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Segré, G.: Faust in Copenhagen: A Struggle for the Soul of Physics. Jonathan Cape, London (2007)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sime, R.L.: Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics. University of California Press, Berkeley (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  • Snow, C.P.: The Physicists: A Generation that Changed the World. Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Toronto (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoney, G.J.: Of the “electron”, or atom of electricity. Philos. Mag. 38, 418–420 (1894)

    Google Scholar 

  • Stranges, A.N.: Electrons and Valence: Development of the Theory 1900–1925. Texas A&M University Press, College Station (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  • Szilard, L.: In: Weart, S.R., Szilard, G.W. (eds.) His Version of the Facts. Selected Recollections and Correspondence. MIT Press, Cambridge (1978)

  • Thomson, J.J.: Cathode rays. Proc. R. Inst. 1–14 (1897a)

  • Thomson, J.J.: Cathode rays. Philos. Mag. 44, 293–315 (1897b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Asche, H.M.: The ignored discovery of element Z = 43. Nucl. Phys. A 480, 205–214 (1988)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Spronsen, J.W.: The Periodic System of Chemical Elements: A History of the First Hundred Years. Elsevier, Amsterdam (1969)

    Google Scholar 

  • Weart, S.R.: In: Shea, W.R.D. (ed.) Otto Hahn and the Rise of Nuclear Physics, pp. 91–133. Reidel Publishing, Dordrecht (1983)

  • Weinberg, S.: The Discovery of Subatomic Particles, Revised Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, H.G.: The World Set Free, 2000th edn. Quiet Vision Publishing, USA (1914)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    Jack E. Fergusson

Authors
  1. Jack E. Fergusson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jack E. Fergusson.

Additional information

J. E. Fergusson—Deceased.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fergusson, J.E. The history of the discovery of nuclear fission. Found Chem 13, 145–166 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-011-9112-2

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10698-011-9112-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation