Nuclear Museum Logo
Nuclear Museum Logo

National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

August “Gus” Knuth

MillwrightChicago, IL

Manhattan Project VeteranProject Worker/Staff
Listen to August “Gus” Knuth’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

August “Gus” Knuth was a millwright and carpenter who helped construct Chicago Pile-1. He was present on December 2, 1942 when the pile went critical in the first self-sustaining chain reaction in history.

Related Profiles

Herbert E. Kubitschek

Chicago, IL

Herbert E. Kubitschek (1920-1989) was an American biologist and physicist. He studied under Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago and was present when Chicago Pile-1, the world’s first self-sustained nuclear chain reaction, went critical on December 2, 1942.

Winston Grice

Chicago, IL

Winston Grice was a millwright at the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory (“Met Lab”) during the Manhattan Project.

H. E. Remsburg

Oak Ridge, TN

H. E. Remsburg worked for the Edenfield Electric Company.

Leo A. Bidez

Hanford, WA