Manhattan Project

[[Image:Calutrons at Oak Ridge.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Control panels and operators for calutrons at the Y-12 National Security Complex|Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge National Laboratory|Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The Manhattan Engineering District

In the summer of 1942, Col. Leslie Groves was deputy to the chief of construction for the Army Corps of Engineers and had overseen construction of the Pentagon, the world's largest office building. Hoping for an overseas command, Groves vigorously objected when Somervell appointed him to take charge of the weapons project. His objections were overruled and Groves resigned himself to leading a project he thought had little chance of succeeding.

Related Topics:
Leslie Groves - Army Corps of Engineers - The Pentagon

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The first thing he did was rechristen the project The Manhattan District. The name evolved from the Corps of Engineers practice of naming districts after its headquarters' city (Marshall's headquarters were in New York City). At the same time, Groves was promoted to brigadier general, which gave him the rank thought necessary to deal with the senior scientists in the project.

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Within a week of his appointment, Groves had solved the Manhattan Project's most urgent problems. His forceful and effective manner was soon to become all too familiar to the atomic scientists.

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The first major scientific hurdle of the project was solved on December 2, 1942 beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, where a team led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction. A coded phone call from Compton saying, "The Italian navigator (referring to Fermi) has landed in the new world, the natives are friendly" to Conant in Washington, DC, brought the news that the experiment was a success. This was a major turning point.

Related Topics:
December 2 - Stagg Field - University of Chicago - Enrico Fermi - Nuclear chain reaction

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