Race for the Atomic Bomb

Groueff: Hello? Hello? Recording, San Francisco, Berkeley, February 9, 1965. Robert Thornton: Well my first connection with the radiation laboratory was in about 1933 when I came here on a post-doctoral fellowship because it was not long before then. And I then was working with Professor [Ernest] Lawrence and others on the development on the […]

Stephane Groueff: Mr. James Stowers. James Stowers: We had a responsibility of procurement, which was not generally—it was not generally known. Going into this job, the Kellogg Company wanted to be well protected. They didn’t want to lose any money, it’s understandable. And they did not want to get entangled in having to defend a […]

[We would like to thank Robert S. Norris, author of the definitive biography of General Leslie R. Groves, Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, the Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man, for taking the time to read over these transcripts for misspellings and other errors.] Stephane Groueff: So you were saying that they were very close […]

Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly. It is Thursday November 6th. I am in Atlanta, Georgia. I have with me Mr. Tom Forkner. My first question to him is to tell me his name and spell it. Forkner: How about T-O-M, F-O-R-K-N-E-R. Kelly: Thank you. So let’s start at the beginning. Maybe you could tell us […]

Interviewer: December 2, 1962 marks the twentieth anniversary of the first nuclear chain reaction achieved at the University of Chicago. That day a group of scientists, led by the late Dr. Enrico Fermi, operated man’s first atomic reactor. The occasion ushered in the atomic age. Present at that historic moment was Dr. Norman Hilberry former […]

Richard Rhodes: This will be a tape of an interview with Doctor Segrè. That’s E-m-i-l-i-o, S-e-g-r-e at his home in Lafayette, California on the 29th of June 1983.  I have been, for example, through the Oppenheimer Papers, I’ve been through the [Leo] Szilard Papers in La Jolla. All of the books, most of the books […]

Stephane Groueff: So I think the best thing is just talk. So if you want to start from the beginning and tell me a little bit about yourself, Dr. Wheeler, and where you come from and a few words about your career, and how you happen to get involved with the atomic project. John Wheeler: […]

Cindy Kelly: I’m Cindy Kelly, Atomic Heritage Foundation, and it’s Monday, September 8, 2014. I’m at the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, with David Kaiser. The first thing I’d like him to do is tell us his name and spell it. David Kaiser: My name is David Kaiser. The last name is […]

Richard Rhodes: Interview with Dr. Kistiakowsky in Cambridge, Massachusetts, January 15, 1982. I have done a great deal of reading into the literature; there are probably two hundred books that are built around the subject that I’ve looked at, including yours, which I enjoyed. Can I go back to some very early things?  George Kistiakowsky: […]

Stephane Groueff: General James Marshall, New York, November 4, 1965. Groueff: When and how and where did you first learn about the project and who assigned you and where and when? All the details of your assignment. James Marshall: My journal, kept for many years, shows that on June 17, 1942 – which was a […]