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Today in History: Leo Szilard envisions nuclear chain reaction in London

By Drooid · Sep 12, 2026, 10:35 AM UTC · How we work

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While stopped at a Bloomsbury traffic light, Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard conceived the nuclear chain reaction. He later patented the concept in 1936, describing a self-sustaining series of fission events that release millions of times more energy than chemical reactions, a breakthrough that ultimately led to the Manhattan Project.

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Story summary

While stopped at a Bloomsbury traffic light, Hungarian-American physicist Leo Szilard conceived the nuclear chain reaction. He later patented the concept in 1936, describing a self-sustaining series of fission events that release millions of times more energy than chemical reactions, a breakthrough that ultimately led to the Manhattan Project.