The discovery of organic solid and liquid scintillators by H. Kallmann and L. Herforth 50 years ago

With this article we remember the discovery of solid and liquid scintillators 50 years ago. H. Kallmann and L. Herforth found out that aromatic hydrocarbons are suitable to convert the absorbed energy of nuclear radiation especially from β-particles into light. They found the quenching of impurities, the reduced photon yield of α-emitters and the different fluorescent decay time of α- and β-particles. (author)