John W. Marden was deputy research director at the Westinghouse Electric Corporation Lamp Plant in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Working with Harvey C. Rentschler, the plant’s director of research, Marden developed a reliable process for producing pure uranium metal.
In 1942, Westinghouse was contracted by the University of Chicago Met Lab to produce uranium. The company successfully provided more than three tons of uranium for Chicago Pile-1, and supplied approximately 69 tons of uranium for the Manhattan Project.