Manhattan+Project

= Manhattan Project - = =It was the first atomic bomb during world war II. = From 1942- 1946 the project was under direction of Major Generel Leslie Groves. It was used in the major bombing of japan ( Hiroshima, and Nagasaki.) It was also used in the allied invasion of Italy, France and Germany. Robert Oppenheimer was the leading physicist in fast netron calculations along with John H. Manly, a physicist at the Metallurgical Laboratory, was assigned to assist Oppenheimer by contacting and coordinating experimental physics groups scattered across the country. Oppenheimer and Robert Serber of the University of Illinois examined the problems of neutron diffusion—how neutrons moved in a chain reaction and how the explosion produced by a chain reaction might behave. The significance of the manhattan project was that it ended world war II because japan had to surrender, it also let alot of other countries the opportunity to make there own nucular weapons.

In addition to work on uranium, there was an effort to produce plutonium. Reactors were constructed at Hanford, Washington in which uranium was turned into plutonium.The plutonium was then chemically separated from the uranium. The gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium so a more complex implosion-type weapon was developed, designed and constructed at the project's weapons research and design laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb at the Trinity Test, conducted at New Mexico's Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Rang on July 16, 1945. Little Boy, a gun-type weapon, and the implosion-type Fat Man were used in the atomic bombing of japan.



1934: The first nuclear fission is achieved by Enrico Fermi of Italy

1939: The Theory of Nuclear Fission is announced by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch.

January 26, 1939: At a conference at George Washington University, Niels Bohr announces the discovery of fission.

January 26, 1939: Robert Oppenheimer realizes the military possibilities of nuclear fission

August 2, 1939: Albert Einstein writes to President Franklin Roosevelt concerning the use of uranium as a new source of energy leading to the formation of the Committee on Uranium. September 1, 1939: World War II Begins. February 23, 1941: Plutonium is discovered by Glenn Seaborg. October 9, 1941: FDR gives the go-ahead for the development of an atomic weapon. December 6, 1941: FDR authorizes the Manhattan Engineering District for the purpose of creating an atomic bomb. This would later be called the 'Manhattan Project'. September 23, 1942: Colonel Leslie Groves is placed in charge of the Manhattan Project. J. Robert Oppenheimer becomes the Project's Scientific Director. December 2, 1942: First controlled nuclear fission reaction is produced by Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago. May 5, 1943: Japan becomes the primary target for any future atomic bomb according to the Military Policy Committee of the Manhattan Project. April 12, 1945: Franklin Roosevelt dies. Harry Truman is named the 33rd President of the US. April 27, 1945: The Target Committee of the Manhattan Project select four cities as possible targets for the atomic bomb. May 8, 1945 : War ends in Europe. May 25, 1945: Leo Szilard attempts to warn President Truman in person concerning the dangers of atomic weapons. July 1, 1945: Leo Szilard begins a petition to get President Truman to call off using the atomic bomb in Japan. July 13, 1945: American intelligence discovers the only obstacle to peace with Japan is 'unconditional surrender'. July 16, 1945: The world's first atomic detonation takes place in the 'Trinity Test' at Alamogordo, New Mexico. July 21, 1945: President Truman orders atomic bombs to be used. July 26, 1945: Potsdam Declaration is issued, calling for the 'unconditional surrender of Japan'. July 28, 1945: Potsdam Declaration is rejected by Japan. August 6, 1945: Little Boy, a uranium bomb, is detonated over Hiroshima, Japan. It kills between 90,000 and 100,000 people immediately. August 7, 1945: U.S. decides to drop warning pamphlets on Japanese cities. August 9, 1945: The second atomic bomb to hit Japan, Fat Man, was scheduled to be dropped at Kokura. However, because of poor weather the target was moved to Nagasaki. August 10, 1945: U.S. drops warning leaflets on Nagasaki. September 2, 1945: Japan announces its formal surrender. October, 1945: Edward Teller approaches Robert Oppenheimer to aid in the building of a new hydrogen bomb. Oppenheimer refuses.

Albert Einstein was born at Ulm, in Württemberg, Germany, on March 14, 1879. In 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Institute and Professor in the University of Berlin. He became a German citizen in 1914 and remained in Berlin until 1933 when he renounced his citizenship for political reasons and emigrated to America to take the position of Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton, and he became a United States citizen in 1940. After World War II, Einstein was a leading figure in the World Government Movement, he was offered the Presidency of the State of Israel, which he declined, and he collaborated with Dr. Chaim Weizmann in establishing the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He dealt with classical problems of statistical mechanics and problems in which they were merged with quantum theory: this led to an explanation of the Brownian movement of molecules. He investigated the thermal properties of light with a low radiation density and his observations laid the foundation of the photon theory of light. He died on April 18, 1955 at Princeton, New Jersey.

Leo Szilard was born in Budapest, Hungary, on February 11, 1898. He went to the Institute of Technology in Berlin, where he met physicist Albert Einstein and the became close friends. By 1933, Szilard was forced to resign and fled to London to escape Nazi persecution. Probably the first scientist to think seriously of building real atomic bombs, Szilard was struck by the possibility of a nuclear chain reaction on September 12, 1933. Szilard eventually moved to the United States, where he accepted a teaching position at Columbia University in 1938. Instrumental in the development of the Manhattan Project, he conceived the idea of sending a confidential letter to Franklin D. Roosevelt, warning him about the possibility of an atomic bomb and encouraging the U.S. development of such a program, and obtained Albert Einstein's endorsement in August 1939. As the war continued, Szilard became increasingly annoyed at the fact that he was losing power over his scientific developments to the military, and he clashed many times with Gerneral Leslie Groves. In 1943, Szilard became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. By 1945, it was clear that the U.S. was planning to use the bomb against Japan. Szilard began a campaign against its use. He circulated petitions among the scientists demanding greater scientific input on the future use of atomic weapons. After that he continued to work toward peaceful uses of atomic energy and international arms control. Szilard died in his sleep of a heart attack on May 30, 1964.