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National Museum of Nuclear Science & History

David P. Rudolph was an administrator in charge of inventory at the Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory.

He was a member of the Special Engineer Detachment at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the Univ. of Chicago. At Los Alamos and the Trinity Test Site he pioneered the development of inventory controls for the fissionable materials used in the atomic bombs: uranium and plutonium.  His experiences with the Manhattan Project, and later with the Atomic Energy Commission, are recounted in his story “Pursuit of Plutonium: The Beancounters’ Odyssey in the Manhattan Project”. He witnessed both the Chicago Pile-1 going critical on Dec. 2, 1942 and the Trinity Test at Alamogordo, NM on July 16, 1945.

David Rudolph’s Timeline
1942 Dec 2nd Witnessed the CP-1 Experiment at Chicago, Illinois.

1945 Jul 16th Witnessed the Trinity Test at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

CP-1 Experiment Signatures

"Pursuit of Plutonium", Page 1

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