Innovations

Stephane Groueff: Mr. Hobbs, part two. So to go now to how you were contacted for the Manhattan Project. J.C. Hobbs: You see, [Ludwig] Skog was one in the group and had me in on – Groueff: And [William Francis] Gibbs. Hobbs: I had a chance to sit in meetings with him probably half a […]

Stephane Groueff: Hello. Colonel Matthias, if you can tell me the story of how the plutonium was shipped. Colonel Franklin Matthias: Is this good enough. Groueff: Yeah, it is good enough. The plutonium was shipped from Hanford to—? Matthias: To Los Alamos. Groueff: To Los Alamos. Matthias: We spent a lot of time trying to […]

Carl Higby: My name is Carl Higby. Last name spelled H-I-G-B-Y. Carl with a C. Tell us how and when you came to Hanford. Higby: Well, in 1950 when I graduated at Washington State University, a recruiter was visiting the WSU campus and made a job offer. It turns out that was the only job […]

Ted Rockwell: It’s Theodore Rockwell, R – O – C – K – W – E – L – L. And what do you want to know? Cindy Kelly: Okay. Tell us about how you happened to go to the Manhattan Project? Rockwell: Well, they were interviewing at school. I came along interviewing for a […]

Philip Abelson conducted research on the liquid thermal diffusion method of isotope separation at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. This process was utilized for the S-50 Plant at Oak Ridge. In September 1944, several workers were injured while trying to fix a clogged tube in the transfer room of the liquid thermal diffusion semi-works at the Philadelphia […]

Philip Abelson: My name is Philip Abelson. I was the son of two Norwegian immigrants. My father was born north of the Arctic Circle, and my mother was born in middle Norway. I visited the birthplaces of both of them. They were very wonderful parents. I couldn’t have had better parents. My father got his […]

Walter Goodman: My name is Walter Goodman and I was born in 1922, which is a very long time ago. I was particularly interested in engineering and in the military from the time I was a young boy. When I did get into the service, I ended up continuing in school, and finished electrical engineering. […]

Martin Sherwin: This is an interview with Hans Bethe in his office at Newman Hall, Cornell University, May 5, 1982. This is Martin Sherwin. Sherwin: I’m glad I caught this. Basically, you were surprised that Kyoto had been selected and at these meetings, that the Target Committee had been held in the Oppenheimer’s office. Hans […]

Richard Rhodes: You said [Richard] Courant’s work added realism? Ted Taylor: Yeah. Rhodes: How so? Taylor: By going over various tricks for dealing with the discontinuities, the singularities in the hydrodynamics. I had the impression that he was very helpful to people like Bob Richtmyer. I don’t know that Richard himself came up with anything […]

[Thanks to Ronald K. Smeltzer for donating the record “To Fermi with Love” to the Atomic Heritage Foundation.] Narrator: Only thirty-one months had passed since Stagg Field. What followed the Trinity event is now history. Within forty-eight days of its demonstration near Alamogordo, the atomic bomb formally brought World War II to an abrupt end on […]