Zoltán Lajos Bay
Encyclopedia
Zoltán Lajos Bay was a Hungarian physicist, professor, and engineer who developed microwave
technology, including tungsten
lamps. He was the first person to observe radar
echoes from the Moon
. From 1930, he worked at the University of Szeged
as a professor of theoretical physics
.
In 1923 at Tungsram Ltd.
, a research laboratory was established for improving light sources, mainly electric bulbs. The head of that laboratory was Ignácz Pfeiffer, whose research staff included Zoltán Bay, along with Tivadar Millner
, Imre Bródy
, György Szigeti
, Ernő Winter
, and many others.
György Szigeti
worked together with Zoltán Bay on metal-vapor lamps and fluorescent light sources. They received a U.S. patent on "Electroluminescent light sources" which were made of silicon carbide; these light sources were the ancestors of light-emitting diode
s (LED
s).
In 1998 the State of Israel recognized him as among the Righteous Among the Nations
and listed his name at Yad Vashem
.
, Hungary on July 24, 1900.
Having finished his secondary school studies in Debrecen, he developed an interest in the technical sciences. His inspirations were famous Hungarian scientists such as János Bolyai
and Loránd von Eötvös
.
In 1918, Zoltán Bay enrolled at the József Eötvös College and studied at the Royal Hungarian Péter Pázmány University (former name of the Budapest University). In 1923, he received a secondary school teacher’s diploma and, in 1926, earned a doctorate in physics.
From 1926 to 1930, Zoltán Bay worked on a scholarship in Germany, where he experienced the character-forming environment of a scientific workshop, and where he also made significant results in analyzing discharges in nitrogen
gas and demonstrating the presence of atom
ic nitrogen
.
On returning home to Hungary, Zoltán Bay was appointed head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Szeged
University. In 1936, he began managing the research laboratory of the United Incandescent Lamps and Electrical Co. In 1937, he became a correspondent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 1945, an ordinary member. In 1938, Bay was appointed professor at the Department of Nuclear Physics in the Technical University of Budapest. The same year he invented the electron multiplier, which was asked for by such as Werner Heisenberg and John Neumann. For his compatriot-emigree John von Neumann he developed electronical circuits, faster than any before, for the early digital computers.In 1946, he conducted successful Moon
-radar experiments. During the war, Zoltán Bay protected Jewish colleagues from Nazi persecution. In 1998, the State of Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations
for his actions and listed his name at Yad Vashem
.
Leaving Hungary in 1948, Zoltán Bay continued his research, working as a professor at George Washington University
, United States. His most important achievement at the university was to finish work on development of the electron multiplier
, which he had started in Hungary in 1938.
In 1955, Zoltán Bay became head of the Department of Nuclear Physics in the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, called today NIST
), where he measured the velocity and frequency of light by a previously unknown measurement method. As a result of Zoltan's research, the 1983 conference of the International Weights and Measures Bureau accepted, as a standard, the definition of a meter (metre)
as recommended by Zoltán Bay.
Zoltán Bay retired at the age of 72. In 1981, he was elected as an honorary member into the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
.
Zoltán Bay died on October 4, 1992 at his home in Washington, D.C.
Microwave
Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...
technology, including tungsten
Tungsten
Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...
lamps. He was the first person to observe radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...
echoes from the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. From 1930, he worked at the University of Szeged
University of Szeged
The University of Szeged is one of Hungary's most distinguished universities, and is among the most prominent higher education institutions in Central Europe...
as a professor of theoretical physics
Theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics which employs mathematical models and abstractions of physics to rationalize, explain and predict natural phenomena...
.
In 1923 at Tungsram Ltd.
Tungsram
Tungsram is a Hungarian manufacturer of light bulbs and vacuum tubes since 1896. General Electric, in 1990, acquired majority share in one of Hungary's largest, oldest, and internationally most prestigious firms, the light-source manufacturer Tungsram. Over the past six years GE has invested $600...
, a research laboratory was established for improving light sources, mainly electric bulbs. The head of that laboratory was Ignácz Pfeiffer, whose research staff included Zoltán Bay, along with Tivadar Millner
Tivadar Millner
Hungarian Tivadar Millner was an inventor who developed tungsten lamps.Working at Tungsram, Tivadar Millner, along with Pál Túry,...
, Imre Bródy
Imre Bródy
Imre Bródy , a Hungarian physicist, who invented in 1930 the krypton-filled fluorescent lamps ,...
, György Szigeti
György Szigeti
György Szigeti ,also known as Gyorgy Szigeti, was a Hungarian physicist and engineer who developed tungsten lamps.In 1923 at Tungsram Ltd., a research laboratory was established for improving light sources, mainly electric bulbs...
, Ernő Winter
Erno Winter
Hungarian Ernő Winter was an engineer who developed tungsten lamps.Working at Tungsram, Ernő Winter, along with others,co-developed tungsten technology for the production of more reliable and longer-lasting coiled-filament lamps....
, and many others.
György Szigeti
György Szigeti
György Szigeti ,also known as Gyorgy Szigeti, was a Hungarian physicist and engineer who developed tungsten lamps.In 1923 at Tungsram Ltd., a research laboratory was established for improving light sources, mainly electric bulbs...
worked together with Zoltán Bay on metal-vapor lamps and fluorescent light sources. They received a U.S. patent on "Electroluminescent light sources" which were made of silicon carbide; these light sources were the ancestors of light-emitting diode
Light-emitting diode
A light-emitting diode is a semiconductor light source. LEDs are used as indicator lamps in many devices and are increasingly used for other lighting...
s (LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
s).
In 1998 the State of Israel recognized him as among the Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
and listed his name at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
.
Life
Zoltan Bay was born in the town of GyulaGyula, Hungary
Gyula is a city in Békés county in south-eastern Hungary. It lies close to the border with Romania, on the river Fehér-Körös.-History:The first recorded reference to Gyula was in a document dated 1313 which mentions a monastery called Gyulamonostor . By 1332 the settlement around the monastery was...
, Hungary on July 24, 1900.
Having finished his secondary school studies in Debrecen, he developed an interest in the technical sciences. His inspirations were famous Hungarian scientists such as János Bolyai
János Bolyai
János Bolyai was a Hungarian mathematician, known for his work in non-Euclidean geometry.Bolyai was born in the Transylvanian town of Kolozsvár , then part of the Habsburg Empire , the son of Zsuzsanna Benkő and the well-known mathematician Farkas Bolyai.-Life:By the age of 13, he had mastered...
and Loránd von Eötvös
Loránd Eötvös
Baron Loránd Eötvös de Vásárosnamény , more commonly called Baron Roland von Eötvös in English literature, was a Hungarian physicist. He is remembered today largely for his work on gravitation and surface tension.-Life:...
.
In 1918, Zoltán Bay enrolled at the József Eötvös College and studied at the Royal Hungarian Péter Pázmány University (former name of the Budapest University). In 1923, he received a secondary school teacher’s diploma and, in 1926, earned a doctorate in physics.
From 1926 to 1930, Zoltán Bay worked on a scholarship in Germany, where he experienced the character-forming environment of a scientific workshop, and where he also made significant results in analyzing discharges in nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
gas and demonstrating the presence of atom
Atom
The atom is a basic unit of matter that consists of a dense central nucleus surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons. The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons...
ic nitrogen
Nitrogen
Nitrogen is a chemical element that has the symbol N, atomic number of 7 and atomic mass 14.00674 u. Elemental nitrogen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, and mostly inert diatomic gas at standard conditions, constituting 78.08% by volume of Earth's atmosphere...
.
On returning home to Hungary, Zoltán Bay was appointed head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Szeged
Szeged
' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary....
University. In 1936, he began managing the research laboratory of the United Incandescent Lamps and Electrical Co. In 1937, he became a correspondent member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and in 1945, an ordinary member. In 1938, Bay was appointed professor at the Department of Nuclear Physics in the Technical University of Budapest. The same year he invented the electron multiplier, which was asked for by such as Werner Heisenberg and John Neumann. For his compatriot-emigree John von Neumann he developed electronical circuits, faster than any before, for the early digital computers.In 1946, he conducted successful Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
-radar experiments. During the war, Zoltán Bay protected Jewish colleagues from Nazi persecution. In 1998, the State of Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
for his actions and listed his name at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
.
Leaving Hungary in 1948, Zoltán Bay continued his research, working as a professor at George Washington University
George Washington University
The George Washington University is a private, coeducational comprehensive university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States...
, United States. His most important achievement at the university was to finish work on development of the electron multiplier
Electron multiplier
An electron multiplier is a vacuum-tube structure that multiplies incident charges. In a process called secondary emission, a single electron can, when bombarded on secondary emissive material, induce emission of roughly 1 to 3 electrons...
, which he had started in Hungary in 1938.
In 1955, Zoltán Bay became head of the Department of Nuclear Physics in the National Bureau of Standards (NBS, called today NIST
National Institute of Standards and Technology
The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...
), where he measured the velocity and frequency of light by a previously unknown measurement method. As a result of Zoltan's research, the 1983 conference of the International Weights and Measures Bureau accepted, as a standard, the definition of a meter (metre)
as recommended by Zoltán Bay.
Zoltán Bay retired at the age of 72. In 1981, he was elected as an honorary member into the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Hungarian Academy of Sciences
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest.-History:...
.
Zoltán Bay died on October 4, 1992 at his home in Washington, D.C.