Manhattan Project History

This .pdf is courtesy of the California Digital Library.

This .pdf is courtesy of the California Digital Library.

To the Secretary of War August 17, 1945 Dear Mr. Secretary: The Interim Committee has asked us to report in some detail on the scope and program of future work in the field of atomic energy. One important phase of this work is the development of weapons; and since this is the problem which has […]

Left to right, back row:Norman Hilberry, 1899-1986Samuel Allison, 1900-1965Thomas Brill, 1920-1998Robert Nobles, 1917-2007Warren Nyer, 1922-2016Marvin Wilkening, 1918-2006 Left to right, middle row:Harold Agnew, 1921-2013William Sturm, 1918-1999Harold Lichtenberger, 1920-1993Leona Woods, 1919-1986Leo Szilard, 1898-1964 Left to right, front row:Enrico Fermi, 1901-1954Walter Zinn, 1907-2000Albert Wattenberg, 1917-2007Herbert Anderson, 1914-1988    List of Chicago Pile-1 Witnesses Harold M. Agnew Samuel K. […]

Point: APO 247, Tinian Time Takeoff: 245 Time Landed: 1458   Position – Time (Military) – Remarks [AHF Notes are in italics] N. Tip Siapan – 0255 [Northern tip of Saipan, 10 min after takeoff] … 18°43’N 144°21’E – 400 – ETA 0552 … IWO – 0555 – Circleing Left For Rend [Iwo Jima, planes are sic:circling for rendezvous] […]

Check list for loading charge in plane with special breech plug

From “The Man Who Made Manhattan” by Robert De Vore In the days when he was building Army camps, Groves insisted upon quick decisions. It was a standing rule that all questions on the sites had to be answered in twenty-four hours or an explanation given. In Manhattan, Groves cut the time for decisions down […]

From Now It Can Be Told by Leslie R. Groves It is essential for the reader to keep in mind the truly pioneering nature of the plutonium development as well as the short time available for research, to appreciate the gigantic steps taken by both scientists and engineers in moving as rapidly as they did from […]

From Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age by James G. Hershberg By 1942, Conant’s incentive for clamping down on any potential security lapse, whether by garrulous relatives or scientists lacking a “need to know,” had steeply risen due to his belief that only a Nazi A-bomb could alter the war’s outcome. Roosevelt, […]

From Leaving the Bomb Project by Joseph Rotblat In March 1944, I experienced a disagreeable shock. At that time I was living with the Chadwicks in their house on the Mesa, before moving later to the “Big House,” the quarters for single scientists. General Leslie Groves, when visiting Los Alamos, frequently came to the Chadwicks […]