I think this is one of the most amazing science fiction birthing a real life achievement I've ever known about. Guy writes a novel about the atom bomb process in 1913 predicting the first successful experiment will happen in 1933. A scientist reading the novel in 1933 is intrigued, decides to try and is successful.
After it was discovered that radiation was the result of atoms randomly decaying over long periods of time, there was speculation about making them release all their energy at once. There were sci-fi stories in the 'teens and 20s about discovering a ray that could be shined on radioactive material to make it go foof. There was no concept of neutrons, critical mass, or slamming hemispheres together. The idea was that the bomb residue would be nonradioactive because it all decayed.
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