Erich Rudolf Bagge (born 30 May 1912, died 1996), German scientist. Bagge, a PhD student of Werner Heisenberg, was engaged in German Atomic Energy research during the Second World War. He worked as an Assistant at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Physik in Berlin. From June to December 1945, Bagge was, together with Kurt Diebner, Walther Gerlach, Otto Hahn, Paul Harteck, Werner Heisenberg, Horst Korschning, Max von Laue, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker and Karl Wirtz, detained at Farm Hall near Cambridge, England. After the war, Bagge became Professor in Hamburg, later Professor and Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Kiel, Germany. He was also Head of the Gesellschaft für Kernenergieverwertung in Schiffbau und Schiffahrt (GKSS) near Hamburg.

Dr Bagge developed the gaseous uranium centrifuge for enriching uranium radioactivity at Kiel in 1942. His centrifuge machine was built by the firm Anschultz & co. Yellow cake uranium powder was mixed with hydroflouric acid to form uranium hexafloride. It was pumped into a sealed centrifuge and spun at great speeds to fling heavier non radioactive U238 at the outside of the vessel. Electromagnets helped to keep U235 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 sluced off the top layers. Thus the centrifuge was also known as an isotope sluce. Later in April 1944 Dr Paul Harteck placed an order for isotope sluces from BAMAG-MEGUIN for development of an Atomic Bomb by Kurt Diebner

The centrifuge process is today known as the Harteck process, but it's true creator was Dr Erich Bagge.

Further Reading

Sir Charles Frank (ed), Operation Epsilon. The Farm Hall Transcripts, Bristol and Philadelphia 1993