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[Many thanks to Jonathan Sheline for donating this recording to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Jonathan Sheline: This is February 6, 2009. I am interviewing Dad about his early life. Dad, tell me where you were born and what you remember about your first few homes growing up. Raymond Sheline: I’m not sure if I was […]

Owen Gingerich: This is an interview between Owen Gingerich and Robert Wilson. You use your middle initial. It’s Robert R.? Robert Wilson: Yes, usually. Gingerich: Robert R. Wilson, who is a builder of high energy accelerators and who was one of the physicists at Los Alamos. We are speaking today in Philadelphia, where we both happen […]

Martin Sherwin: You mentioned a point that others have mentioned that intrigue me: [J. Robert] Oppenheimer’s summer in Corsica. You said that Oppenheimer had once told you that reading [Marcel] Proust’s Memory of Things Past was one of the great experiences of his life. Haakon Chevalier: Yes. Sherwin: I have two questions about that. One, could you elaborate on that? […]

Martin Sherwin: How much were the dues [to the Communist Party]? David Hawkins: God, I don’t remember. Not very much, or I wouldn’t have been able to afford them. Sherwin: Two bucks, five bucks? Hawkins: Yeah, something like that. Sherwin: A month? Hawkins: A month, yeah. I really honestly don’t remember. Maybe five bucks a […]

Martin Sherwin: On June 5th, 1982. Well, now, John, why don’t you start and ask questions about the relationship with Cliff, because I think the [J. Robert] Oppenheimer relationship might be able to go on forever, and we’ll never get to your questions. John S. Rosenberg: Okay. Well, first, how did you come to meet? […]

Rhodes: Well, I had started to ask you about the Korean War. Was that a shock? Did that worry everyone and accelerate your sense of pressure? Taylor: I don’t think so. I don’t remember any feeling of pressure, that we had to do something by a certain time or else all hell would break lose. […]

Siegfried Hecker: Okay, I was just—a little bit more on the testing business. Again, I will not give you much because eventually, I am sure you will do all the research on this. There are some interesting dynamics in the testing business all the way around, because it is such an emotional issue. So hard […]

Richard Rhodes: Although again, I was struck in Russia with how different a world that was. Ted Taylor: Oh, yeah. Rhodes: How much more closely they were— Taylor: That is why I am so thankful because in many other places people get shot. Rhodes: Yeah. We could not even get directions on the street. Nobody […]

Ed Wood: January 21, 1954 will go down as a significant day in human history. A milestone in man’s scientific progress. For on that day, at Groton, Connecticut, was launched the first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, powered by the world’s first atomic engine designed to do useful work. With this achievement, man at last has […]

Martin Sherwin: Did you know Robert [Oppenheimer] when he was going out with Jean Tatlock? Chevalier: Yes, but I don’t think I ever saw them together. Sherwin: When we first spoke over the phone, you called me from the airport about three or four years ago. I was living in Princeton, New Jersey. Chevalier: Oh, yes. Yes, that’s right. […]