Albert Einstein is arguably the most famous scientist in modern history. In fact, he's so famous that he often gets credit for accomplishments he wasn't actually responsible for—not to mention, all those people who misremember his actual achievements.

Take, for example, nuclear fission, which some laypersons are quick to credit Einstein with "inventing." Setting aside the fact that one can't invent a process that occurs independently in nature, Einstein may have helped set the stage for fission research with his theories. However, the credit for discovering and quantifying fission resides with a who's who of famous physicists, including Niels Bohr, Lise Meitner, and Enrico Fermi.

Other laypersons are more precise in their misattributions, crediting Einstein with the invention of nuclear energy or nuclear weapons. Here, good old Albert has a bit more direct responsibility, but he's pretty far from the epicenter.

On the weapons front, Einstein famously wrote a letter to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt encouraging the pursuit of nuclear arms, but Einstein himself was never part of the Manhattan Project that actually built the first atomic bombs. As to the nuclear energy technology that made those weapons possible? Again, a litany of scientists have a place in history as part of that accomplishment, but the man who arguably started it all was a sometime student of Einstein's: Leo Szilard.

Szilard actually held the first patent for a nuclear fission chain reaction, and his ideas about using neutron bombardment to create a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction are the basis for all nuclear reactors—warheads included—ever built. Alas, Einstein wasn't a part of Szilard's fission research, once again foiling the notion that Albert was a hands-on participant in the development of nuclear technology.

That's not to say that Einstein never worked on an engineering project, rather than mere theoretical physics. Einstein and Szilard famously collaborated on one of the most fondly remembered footnotes in scientific history—an impractical but ingenious take on a consumer appliance that this pair of intellectual titans co-created in 1926.

WHAT CONSUMER APPLIANCE DID FAMOUS PHYSICISTS ALBERT EINSTEIN AND LEO SZILARD COLLABORATE TO IMPROVE—AND PATENT—IN THE 1920s?

What type of consumer appliance did famous physicists Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard collaborate to improve in the 1920s, filing a patent for their designs in 1926?

The forefathers of nuclear fission had a surprising bond with the Maytag Man, as Einstein and Szilard developed a household refrigerator, for which they received U.S. patent 1,781,451. Known colloquially as the Einstein refrigerator—though Szilard arguably did as much, if not more, to develop its design—this consumer appliance is one example of the former patent clerk Einstein applying for and receiving a patent himself. (Einstein also patented designs for a complex set of gyrocompasses in the late 1920s and early 1930s.)

What made Einstein's and Szilard's refrigerator unusual—both then and now—was its lack of moving parts, especially a compressor. Instead, the Einstein-Szilard design used a closed system of fluids that simply transferred heat from one end to the other, without the need for the pressurization required in most common refrigerator designs.

Heat one end of the assembly, and the opposite end got commensurately colder. As a result, the Einstein-Szilard refrigerator was significantly quieter than its retail contemporaries.

Alas, while German manufacturing giant AEG bought the patent from Einstein and Szilard, the company never put their designs into production—possibly because conventional refrigerators were becoming quiet enough on their own to preclude the development of the new Einstein-Szilard technology.

According to legend, the inspiration behind the duo's design came from reading a newspaper account of a family that died when their conventional refrigerator leaked toxic coolant. The pair believed they could build a safer fridge that didn't include suspect compressor seals. This seems unlikely, since the Einstein-Szilard fridge used ammonia and butane, which are highly toxic and flammable, respectively.

In truth, Einstein merely got involved (and lent his name) to help his student Szilard earn a little side money. That may not make for as good a story, but it's certainly worthy of some fresh, cool Geek Trivia.

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The Quibble of the Week

If you uncover a questionable fact or debatable aspect of this week's Geek Trivia, just post it in the discussion area of the article. Every week, yours truly will choose the best post from the assembled masses and discuss it in the next edition of Geek Trivia.

This week's quibble comes from the November 15 edition of Geek Trivia, "May the Farce be with you." TechRepublic member scott.metter quibbled with my choice of characterizations for a weapon brandished by the original animated Boba Fett.

"You suggested that Boba Fett's 'electrified pitchfork' might be a trident, but tridents have three 'teeth' (tri-dent), not two as Fett's has."

It's a fair point about the cognitive dissonance of a two-pronged trident—would Fett's weapon have been a bident? But I was merely grasping for terms to describe this rather bizarre choice of sci-fi cattle prod—and make some allusions to Aquaman from Superfriends at the same time. I'll be more precise in my allusions in the future, so keep those quibbles coming.

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The Trivia Geek, also known as Jay Garmon, is a former advertising copywriter and Web developer who's duped TechRepublic into underwriting his affinity for movies, sci-fi, comic books, technology, and all things geekish or subcultural.