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Erich Rudolf Bagge (30 May 1912 – 5 June 1996), German scientist. Bagge, a student of Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg

Werner Heisenberg was a German Theoretical physics who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory....
 for his doctorate and Habilitation
Habilitation

Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate , the habilitation requires the candidate to write a postdoctoral thesis based on independent scholarly accomplishments, reviewed by and defended before an academic c...
, was engaged in German Atomic Energy research and the German nuclear energy project
German nuclear energy project

The German nuclear energy project in Nazi Germany was informally known as the Uranverein and it began in April 1939, just months after the discovery of nuclear fission in January 1939....
 during the Second World War. He worked as an Assistant at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik in Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
. Bagge, who became associated professor at the University of Hamburg in 1948, was in particular involved in the usage of nuclear power for trading vessels, and he was one of the founders of the Society for the Usage of Nuclear Energy in Ship-Building and Seafare.






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Erich Rudolf Bagge (30 May 1912 – 5 June 1996), German scientist. Bagge, a student of Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg

Werner Heisenberg was a German Theoretical physics who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory....
 for his doctorate and Habilitation
Habilitation

Habilitation is the highest academic qualification a person can achieve by their own pursuit in certain European and Asian countries. Earned after obtaining a research doctorate , the habilitation requires the candidate to write a postdoctoral thesis based on independent scholarly accomplishments, reviewed by and defended before an academic c...
, was engaged in German Atomic Energy research and the German nuclear energy project
German nuclear energy project

The German nuclear energy project in Nazi Germany was informally known as the Uranverein and it began in April 1939, just months after the discovery of nuclear fission in January 1939....
 during the Second World War. He worked as an Assistant at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik in Berlin
Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
. Bagge, who became associated professor at the University of Hamburg in 1948, was in particular involved in the usage of nuclear power for trading vessels, and he was one of the founders of the Society for the Usage of Nuclear Energy in Ship-Building and Seafare. The first German nuclear vessel, the "NS Otto Hahn", was launched in 1962. A research reactor was installed in Geesthacht near Hamburg at about the same time which has over the years formed into a center for materials research with neutrons.

Uranium enrichment

Dr. Bagge developed a gaseous uranium
Uranium

Uranium is a silvery-gray metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the chemical symbol U and atomic number 92....
 enrichment device (Isotopenschleuse or isotope sluice) for enriching the U-235 isotope content of uranium in 1944, using three methods; centrifugal force, electronmagnetism and thermal diffusion. It was built by BAMAG-MEGUIN under the direction of Kurt Diebner
Kurt Diebner

Kurt Diebner was a German nuclear physicist from Nessa, Saxony-Anhalt. During World War II, he was the administrative director of the German nuclear energy project....
.

Yellow cake
Yellow cake

Yellow cake could be any of these:* Yellowcake is concentrated uranium oxide, obtained through the milling of uranium ore.* The Niger uranium forgeries refer to a set of forgery containing Military intelligence about yellowcake which were used in the justification of the 2003 invasion of Iraq....
 uranium powder was mixed with hydrofluoric acid
Hydrofluoric acid

Hydrofluoric acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride in water. While it is extremely corrosive and dangerous to handle, it is technically a weak acid....
 to form uranium hexafluoride
Uranium hexafluoride

Uranium hexafluoride , referred to as "hex" in the nuclear industry, is a compound used in the uranium Isotope separation#Centrifugal Force process that produces fuel for nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons....
. It was pumped into a sluice and spun at great speeds to fling heavier non-radioactive U238
Uranium-238

Uranium-238 , is the most common Isotopes of uranium of uranium found in nature. When hit by a neutron, it becomes uranium-239 , an unstable isotope which radioactive decay into neptunium-239 , which then itself decays, with a half-life of 2.355 days, into plutonium-239 ....
 to the outside. Electromagnet
Electromagnet

An electromagnet is a type of magnet in which the magnetic field is produced by the flow of electric Current . The magnetic field disappears when the current ceases....
s helped to keep U235
Uranium-235

Uranium-235 is an Isotopes of uranium that differs from the element's other common isotope, uranium-238, by its ability to cause a rapidly expanding nuclear fission chain reaction, i.e., it is fissile....
 nearer the core of the centrifuge. Slight heating near the bottom of the "bowl" helped U238 to migrate to the bottom whilst U235 bubbled to the top of the chamber. U-235 was then sluiced off the top layers.

Bagge got a patent in 1955 for the isotope sluice but it never achieved any economic importance.

Post-war activity

From June to December 1945, Bagge was (together with Kurt Diebner
Kurt Diebner

Kurt Diebner was a German nuclear physicist from Nessa, Saxony-Anhalt. During World War II, he was the administrative director of the German nuclear energy project....
, Walther Gerlach, Otto Hahn
Otto Hahn

Otto Hahn was a German chemist and Nobel laureate who pioneered the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is regarded as "the father of nuclear chemistry" and the "founder of the atomic age"....
, Paul Harteck
Paul Harteck

Paul Karl Maria Harteck was a Germany physical chemist. He was arrested by the allied British and American Armed Forces and incarcerated at Farm Hall for six months in 1945 under Operation Epsilon....
, Werner Heisenberg
Werner Heisenberg

Werner Heisenberg was a German Theoretical physics who made foundational contributions to quantum mechanics and is best known for asserting the uncertainty principle of quantum theory....
, Horst Korsching
Horst Korsching

Horst Korsching was a German physicist. He was arrested by the allied British and American Armed Forces and incarcerated at Farm Hall for six months in 1945 under Operation Epsilon....
, Max von Laue
Max von Laue

Max Theodor Felix von Laue was a German physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1914 for his discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals....
, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker

Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizs?cker was a Germany physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the research team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under Werner Heisenberg's leadership....
, and Karl Wirtz
Karl Wirtz

Karl Eugen Julius Wirtz was a German nuclear physicist. He was arrested by the allied British and American Armed Forces and incarcerated at Farm Hall for six months in 1945 under Operation Epsilon....
) detained at Farm Hall near Cambridge
Cambridge

The city status in the United Kingdom of Cambridge is a College town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies about 50 miles north of London....
, England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
. After the war, Bagge became Professor in Hamburg, later Professor and Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Kiel
University of Kiel

The University of Kiel is a university in the city of Kiel, Germany. It was founded in 1665 as the Academia Holsatorum Chiloniensis by Christian Albert, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and has approximately 23,000 students today....
, Germany. He was also Head of the Gesellschaft für Kernenergieverwertung in Schiffbau und Schiffahrt (GKSS) near Hamburg.

See also

  • Sir Charles Frank (ed), Operation Epsilon. The Farm Hall Transcripts, Bristol and Philadelphia 1993
  • Rainer Karlsch, Hitlers Bombe, DVA München 2005, ISBN 3-421-05809-1