Manhattan+Project+2

Connor: Manhattan Project

In 1938 many people feared that Hitler would build an atomic bomb after word spread that German scientist had split the uranium atom (fission). However, one of Hitlers mistakes was his persecution of Jewish scientists. This persecution resulted in numerous scientists seeking asylum in the United States. One such scientist was Albert Einstein. Einstein, abandoning his belief in pacifism, urged then president Franklin Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb before Hitler did. Eventually Roosevelt agreed and the United States attempt at building the atomic bomb was codenamed //The Manhattan Project//. The Manhattan Project was carried out in extreme secrecy. By 1945, the project had nearly 40 labratories and factories which empolyed approximately 200,000 people. Among these employees were some of the greatest scientist that have ever lived. Included in this lot were Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, J. Robert Openheimer, and Harold Urey (and this is but a hand full of the many).  Einstein suggested that an incredibly powerful new type of bomb. The Manhattan Project is the code name for the US government's secret project that was established before World War II and culminated in the development of the nuclear bomb. The idea of forming a research team to create a nuclear weapon was endorsed in a letter than Einstein sent to Franklin Roosevelt, the president of America at the time. This was in 1939. In 1942 Enrico Fermi, a physicist, successfully controlled a nuclear reaction in his reactor called CP-1 (Chicago Pile 1). CP-1 was located at the University of Chicago under a squash court, quite incredibly. The following was said by a member of the project: Later n the project the first atomic bomb was exploded at Los Alamos. This was on July 6, 1945. The director of Los Alamos said upon witnessing the first test of a nuclear weapon: //We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and to impress him takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all felt that one way or another.// J. Robert Oppenheimer In 1945 the United States covert operation known as The Manhattan Project achieved its goal - to create the first atomic bomb. Since its inception in 1939, scientist had struggled to find a way to harness the power of [|__fission__]. Through the combined efforts of many, a test bomb known as "Fat Boy" was finally created. On July 16, 1945 in a desert in New Mexico the worlds first nuclear test, codenamed Trinity, was conducted and ushered in the Atomic Age. The Trinity test success led to the creation of two more atomic bombs that would be used in WWII. The Chicago Met Lab served as the hub of the nationwide Metallurgical Project, which was commissioned to study atomic theory and, if possible, to build a prototype atomic reactor. Under the leadership of Arthur H. Compton and Enrico Fermi, the Met Lab team built, and on December 2, 1942, successfully operated, the first atomic reactor, CP-1 (Chicago Pile-1), in an abandoned squash court under the grandstands of the since demolished Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. In February 1943 CP-1 was dismantled and rebuilt, as CP-2, at the more isolated Argonne site in [|__Lemont__]. The CP-2 experiments yielded continued technical assistance in the development of the bomb, which occurred mostly at other Manhattan Project sites in Hanford, Washington; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
 * Albert Einstein || Niels Bohr || Enrico Fermi ||
 * [[image:Al_E..jpg width="126" height="126"]] || [[image:Bohr_Niels_9.jpeg width="110" height="154"]] || [[image:fermi.jpg width="137" height="143"]] ||
 * [[image:Al_E..jpg width="126" height="126"]] || [[image:Bohr_Niels_9.jpeg width="110" height="154"]] || [[image:fermi.jpg width="137" height="143"]] ||