Zoltán Lajos Bay

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Hungarian Zoltán Lajos Bay (1900-1992) <ref name=HunInvent2>

    "Fizikai Szemle 1999/5 - Zsolt Bor: OPTICS BY HUNGARIANS" (with Zoltan Bay),
    József Attila University, Szeged, Hungary, 1999, webpage:
    KFKI-Hungary-Bor.

</ref> was a 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.

Zoltan Bay worked with György Szigeti on metal-vapor lamps and fluorescent light sources.

In 1923 at Tungsram Ltd., a research laboratory was established for improving light sources, mainly electric bulbs.<ref name=HunInvent2/> The head of that laboratory was Ignácz Pfeiffer (1867-1941), whose research staff included Zoltan Bay, along with Tivadar Millner, Imre Bródy (1891-1944), György Szigeti (1905-1978), Ernő Winter (1897-1971), and many others.<ref name=HunInvent2/>

Gyorgy Szigeti worked together with Zoltan 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 diodes (LEDs).<ref name=HunInvent2/>

[edit] Life

Zoltan Bay was born in the town of Gyulavári, Hungary on July 24, 1900. <ref name=BayBio>

    "Zoltán Bay, whose name the Foundation bears" (life),
    Bay Zoltán Institute of Logistics and Production Engineering (Bay-Logi),
    Bay Zoltán Foundation for Applied Research,
    1994, webpage:
    BZLogi Biography at Bay Zoltán Foundation.

</ref> 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 Bólyai and Loránd von Eötvös.<ref name=BayBio/>

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).<ref name=BayBio/> 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 atomic nitrogen.<ref name=BayBio/>

On returning home to Hungary, Zoltán Bay was appointed head of the Department of Theoretical Physics at Szeged University.<ref name=BayBio/> 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 Buda-pest, where he had been a student 20 years prior. In 1946, he conducted successful Moon-radar experiments.<ref name=BayBio/>

Leaving Hungary in 1948, Zoltán Bay continued his research, working as a professor at George Washington University, USA.<ref name=BayBio/> 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.<ref name=BayBio/>

In 1955, Zoltán Bay became head of the Department of Nuclear Physics in the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), where he measured the velocity and frequency of light by a previously unknown measurement method.<ref name=BayBio/> 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.<ref name=BayBio/>