The Manhattan Project - the atomic bomb project

The responsibility of constructing the atomic bomb was first given to the Atomic Committee of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD).
In May 1942, committee members E. Lawrence, A.H. Compton, H. Urey (all Nobel laureates), L. Briggs, and E. Murphree met with J.B. Conant, the director of OSRD.
On September 23, 1942, the Uranium Committee met with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall and other top military officers including Major General Leslie R. Groves.
Major General Leslie R. Groves was named the Executive Officer to carry out the policy of building the atomic bomb.
The Manhattan Project was carried out under secrecy. Workers on the project were not allowed to communicate their information to each other unless they were authorized to do so. This process was called compartmentalization, and as a result some top scientists working on the project did not know the ultimate goal was to build atomic bombs.
The history of the Mahattan Project is full of science, technology, management, humanity, and spy stories. The National Atomic Museum offers an interesting collection.

Internet Link on the Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project is the code name for the United States program to develop an atomic bomb during World War II, the Manhattan Project was the largest scientific effort undertaken to that time. It involved 37 installations throughout the country; at least 13 university laboratories; and 100,000 people, including the Nobel prize-winning physicists Arthur Holly Compton, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Ernest Lawrence, and Harold Urey.

The Manhattan Project Home Page
The Manhattan Project of Compton's Encyclopedia on line.
The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by The Manhattan Engineer District, June 29, 1946. The Avalon Project at Yale Law School.
Simon Wiesenthal Center Multimedia Learning Center Online Photo album of Manhattan Projects and stories.
Manhattan Project Exhibits of the American Airpower Heritage Museum.
The Manhattan Project on Yahoo.com
Hanford
Oakridge

The Atomic Bomb

Fat Man and Little Boy from the American Airpower Heritage Museum website.
Nuclear Weapon Systems Sustainment Program of the Office of the Secretary of Defense of the United States.
Trinity Atomic Web Site The explosion picture is this site.

The Atomic Spy

Klaus Fuchs After much investigation, on 27 January 1950 Fuchs confessed to MI5 of his spy activities. This discovery probably accelerated the U.S. hydrogen bomb effort, which had been announced by President Truman only four days after Fuchs' arrest. After serving 9 years in prison, he was released to East Germany where he became a lecturer in physics.

E-mail: cchieh@uwaterloo.ca