Manhattan Project Summary: Secret WWII Atomic Bomb Development Program

Manhattan Project History
The Manhattan Project was one, if not the most, secretive projects to take place in the history of
the United States of America. Dating back to World War II, its purpose was to create a bomb
capable of splitting atoms apart. The project was a success and resulted in one of the most
devastating bombs ever to be developed and utilized by mankind. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and
Harry S. Truman, the acting Presidents during the time, faced many factors that were involved in
deciding to proceed with developing and ultimately, dropping the bomb. August, 1939, Albert
Einstein was residing in a Nazi occupied Germany. Upon discovering that Germany was in the
process of researching and developing nuclear–based weapons, he partnered with Edward Teller,
...show more content...
An isotope is the same atom but in a different form. The new atom would have the same number of
protons but different numbers of neutrons. Joseph Carter was the scientist who worked on the
refinement of Uranium. Uranium is used because it has the largest atoms of any other natural
element. The larger the atom is, the harder is is to stabilize. the lower the stabilization is, the easier
it is for the nucleus to split and release energy. The use of U–235 would be used in one of the two
ways of detonating a bomb which was the gun barrel way. The way this bomb works is, two pieces
of U–235, individually not large enough to sustain a chain reaction, were brought together rapidly in
a gun barrel to from a supercritical mass that exploded instantaneously. This method was never tested
since confidence of the result was so
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The Manhattan Project Essay
The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was the code name of the America's attempt to construct an atomic bomb
during World War II. It was named after the Manhattan Engineer District of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, because a lot of it's earlier research was done in New York City. An atomic bomb is a
weapon that uses the energy from a nuclear reaction called Fission for its destruction.
The idea that mass could be changed into energy was predicted by Albert Einstein in the earlier part
of the 1900's. John D. Cockcroft and Ernest Walton confirmed this by experiments in 1932. Then in
1938, nuclear fission was discovered by German scientists, and it was feared by many of the U.S.
scientists, that Hitler would try to build a...show more content...
It's first use was made in military action over Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.
The bomb uses a device called an altimeter to measure how far it is from the ground. It sends out
radio frequencies which are bounced back to it. Microchips in the bomb determine how far it still
has to fall, and when to detonate. The bombs also have fuses in the front which arm ! the bomb.
They are not inserted until the bomb is ready to be launched.
Before this bomb was developed, another kind was proposed. Uranium–238 could capture a neutron
and become Uranium–239. All uranium has 92 protons. U–238 has 146 neutrons, and the added
neutron raised the mass to 239. But U–239 is very unstable and it decays to neptunium–239 (93
protons, 146 neutrons), and plutonium–239 (94 protons and 145 neutrons). Plutonium–239 was
fissionable, and could be separated from uranium by chemical techniques ( much easier than
physical process of separating the different isotopes of 235 and 238 of the same element).
The first successful reactor was made at the University of Chicago under the Italian physicist Enrico
Fermi. On December 2, 1942 it made a controlled chain reaction. Five large reactors were built at
Hanford, Washington, where U–238 was blasted with neutrons to make plutonium. It was then sent
to Los Alamos. Since another isotope of plutonium was also fissionable, there was a fear that a chain
reaction could start to soon when the pieces of plutonium where brought

The Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was to see if making an atomic bomb possible. The
success of this project would forever change the world forever making it known that something this
powerful can be manmade. The Manhattan Project's success was something that had an impact on
everybody involved since they helped create something with so much destructive power it could
destroy a city within seconds. The University of Chicago in Illinois had a huge role with the making
of the atomic bomb (The Manhattan Project, Sue Hook). The University has been placed underneath
a football field where nobody would have ever thought of it being (The Manhattan Project, Sue
Hook). The university tested to see if atomic power actually could be...show more content...
Many scientists probably wondered if he or she could get the project finished in time and if his or
her work and effort would be a waste of time. Ever since Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December
7, 1941, the United States had been at war with Japan causing Germany and Japan's other allies to
declare was on the United States (Sue Hook). Japan's ambush got the United States in a war they
were trying to stay out of in the first place. When the United States entered the war, it was more
of a rush for the Manhattan Project. Germany had become strong since Hitler had taken over, but
as World War II progressed they became even stronger. Germany's attempt to take over the world
meant if they succeeded in doing so, United States would be next. Germany was not strong
enough to take on the world by their selves, but with their allies by their side they might have been
able to. If Germany had not surrendered then they would have been the first to see what the atomic
bomb could do. Japan would be the first to experience what kind of power the atomic bomb has.
The war with Germany was over but the war with Japan still wasn't over. The United States, Great
Britain, and the Soviet Union demanded the Japanese surrender (Dale Anderson). When Japan
refused Truman set up a date to bomb Japan (Dale Anderson). Japan being the first ones to
experience what the atomic bomb

Essay On Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The purpose of the manhattan project was to develop an atomic bomb for the United States
defenses. President Roosevelt ordered it to be created. And it was to be kept secret so it wasn't
stolen by germans and other spies to speed up their nuclear process.
The bomb was to only be used in war. It was dropped on nagasaki, and each bomb had a code name
like thinman or little boy or fatman ect.
There were many atomic spies at the time and germany attempted to steal technology from the
manhattan project there were also many espionage surrounding the project to attempt to steal.
The Flying Fortresses were also a big part of the project. The plan was the planes would drop the
bombs and carry the bombs.The first bombs was dropped...show more content...
There were many bunkers used because the bombs were really explosive and highly effective it kills
people in a matter of minutes. There were also secret uranium mines.
It started may 12th during WWII all the countries were making nuclear weapons so the United States
need some it was an attempt to win the nuclear race.
Secretly carried out to the United States, Hartford, WA, Oak Ridge, TN, and Los Alamos,It was
kept secret to protect technology. People that were working on the project got sick and some died
because of how powerful the atomic bomb/gas was
Defectors from germany helped with the project. Allies helped some with the project. The other
countries brought their knowledge of nuclear weapons and brought it here to the United States.
H.G. Wells predicted the project happening in a book long before the project had started. In the
book it showed the power and how nuclear weapons will end society and it is extremely dangerous
most people thought H.G. wells did not predict it he inspired the scientist to make

Manhattan Project Essay
There were three main sites used during the Manhattan Project to produce plutonium and enriched
uranium; The Hanford site in Hanford, Washington, the Y–12 site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the
K–25 site in Oak Ridge as well. On January 16, 1943 General Groves selected Hanford, Washington
as the site for the production of plutonium. Plutonium was identified on February 24, 1941 by
Glenn T. Seaborg's research group. It was discovered that plutonium is two times a likely to produce
fission than uranium. Before General Groves decided to create a plutonium processing plant in
Hanford, three production reactors were already built by engineers and the University of Chicago
(atomicarchive.com). Hanford was the largest plutonium production reactor...show more content...
The key idea in implosion assembly is to compress a subcritical spherical, fissionable mass by
using specially designed high explosives. Implosion works by initiating the detonation of the
explosives on their outer surface, so that the detonation wave moves inward. Careful design allows
the creation of a smooth, symmetrical implosion shock wave. This shock wave is transmitted to the
fissionable core and compresses it, raising the density to the point of supercriticality
(nuclearweaponarchive.org). The issue with implosion is that the detonation of the bomb must form
a symmetrical shock wave to evenly compress the plutonium core. This caused a problem for the
scientists at Los Alamos. The scientists there then thought of a lense. The theory was that a lense
focuses light, so why can it not focus a blast wave.(?) So therefor the scientists constructed a lense
made out of explosives. The lense of explosives could precisely compress a solid sphere of
plutonium into a supercritical state, starting the chain reaction (blog.nuclearsecrecy.com). By the
Spring of 1945 the scientists at Los Alamos were producing compressed explosions that were smooth
and symmetrical, so Oppenheimer scheduled a test for the new bomb

Essay on Manhattan Project
Thesis: The research for the first Atomic bomb was done in the United States, by a group of the best
scientists; this research was given the name of &quot;The Manhattan Project&quot;. On
Monday July 16th, 1945, a countdown for the detonation of the first atomic bomb took place near
Los Alamos, New Mexico. This atomic bomb testing would forever change the meaning of war. As
the atomic bomb was detonated it sent shock–waves all over the world. There was endless research
done on the bomb in the United States. The research was called &quot;The Manhattan Engineer
District Project&quot; but it was more commonly known as "The Manhattan
Project."1 The Manhattan Project was brought by fear of Germany and it's atomic...show more
content...
Then he went to teach at Berkley University.4 Another main person in the research project was
Enrico Fermi. Fermi was a graduate of the University of Pisa, where he received his Ph.D. Fermi
then went to the University of Rome teaching chemistry and biology. Fermi played a major role in
the development of the bomb by creating a sustained nuclear fission chain reaction, which was
critical to making the atomic bomb.4 Richard Feyman was another scientist which worked on the
atomic bomb. Feyman graduated from Princeton where he excelled in physics and other scientific
studies. Feyman's big duty on the Manhattan Project was to break big problems into smaller easier
to do problems.4 The Manhattan Project, also had to have facilities for the research and testing of
the atomic bomb. Some of the facilities built by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers included: power
stations, factories, steel works, hospitals, laboratories, and housing for everybody that worked on
the project.. Other facilities that were built for the construction of the bomb were plants to make the
radioactive material needed to construct the bomb. Oak Ridge, Tennessee was used to make
uranium which was used as an explosive to react with plutonium. The plutonium itself was made in
Hanford, Washington.5 To make this explosion possible, a piece of uranium was fired at another
piece of uranium to make the critical mass that was needed for an explosion. Critical mass is the
exact amount of

Leading up to this time the fascist dictators began to gain power in European countries. The big
three being the countries of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler, Italy, Benito Mussolini, and Japan,
Emperor Hirohito. In 1935 Italy invades and conquers Ethiopia, shorty after Nazi Germany and
Fascist Italy sign a treaty of cooperation. In 1937,Japan, lead by Hirohito, invaded China. Joseph
Stalin, of Russia, signs the German–Russian non–aggression pact; which allowed Hitler to invade
Poland. But when news of the German invasion of Poland spread Britain along with France joined
the war to oppose the Germans. Germany only continues in it's quest for conquest by invading
Denmark and Norway in the year 1940. Meanwhile the United States is remaining completely
uninvolved under it's Neutrality Act that was passed in 1935. The United States, lead by president
Franklin D. Roosevelt, enacted it's Lend Lease Act in 1941 in order to trade and sell to allied
forces, for payment after war. Japan realizes that the U.S. wasn't exactly being neutral so it sent
suicide bombers to attack our naval base in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Thus leading into
the use of the atomic bomb, but first the construction, an event referred to as the Manhattan Project.
The name Manhattan Project came about because the program began under the Manhattan
Engineering District of the War Department. Early 1939, the scientist of the world learned that
German scientist had discovered a way to spit a uranium atom, created

The Manhattan Project was a very important event throughout the World War II history. It began the
development of the atomic bomb and other nuclear weapons that were of good help during the war.
It first began with a German scientist separating the uranium atom, which made people be scared of
what Hitler might be capable of. Also Hitler and his people had begun discovering new types of
weapons that were useful for them in the war. Something that apparently Hitler did not quite think
about, was the persecution of Jewish scientists such as Albert Einstein, who could very well use his
abilities against Hitler. Albert Einstein was a Jewish refugee in the United States. Another very
important scientist, although not Jewish, was Enrico Fermi,...show more content...
On July of 1945, J Robert Oppenheimer tests the first bomb at Trinity State, near Alamogordo,
New Mexico. All the scientists readied themselves to watch the detonation of this atomic bomb
which stood on top of a tower. Once exploded, there was a blinding flash which could be seen
from 200 miles away. It also grew up to 40,000 feet and damaged some of the homes near it that
were 100 miles away. After this explosion President Truman, all the way from Postdam, Germany,
declares that the project was successful. Later on we see how there were more bombings being
made, not only this one at Trinity State. The United States was trying to make Japan surrender but
they denied it. Because of this the United States developed a new bomb named little boy which
was detonated in Hiroshima, Japan. On August 6, 1945 it exploded with an altitude of 1,750 feet.
Over 69% of Hiroshima's buildings were destroyed and about 7% damaged. About 80,000 (or
about 30%) of the people in Hiroshima were killed instantly and another 70,000 were injured. After
this occurring, Japan still didn't want to surrender which caused the United States to develop
another bomb. In August 9, 1945, the next bomb named Fat Man took place at Nagasaki, Japan.
This attack destroyed about 44% of the city, killed about 35,000 people and about 60,000 were
injured. Emperor Hirohito from Japan had enough of these bomb attacks and finally decided to
surrender. He was already

Manhattan Project Significance
It became known that the German knew how to create an atomic bomb and FDR created a
committee to study and create atomic bombs, named the Manhattan Project.The Manhattan Project
was significant to the war because it led to the end of World War II and caused the Japanese to
surrender to the Americans. The amount of people working together along with the cost and time
which led to advancements in technology that was far ahead of any enemy. The creation of the
bombs delivered a push in the advancement of science, innovation, designing, military and the entire
of society into another age. It drew out the powerhouse that we consider today to be the United States
of

The Atomic Bomb
The research for the first Atomic bomb took place in the United States, by a group of nuclear
engineers; the name of this research was called, "The Manhattan Project". On July 16, 1945, the
detonation of the first atomic bomb was tested near Los Alamos, New Mexico. As the atomic bomb
was detonated, it sent shock–waves across the globe, which demonstrated that nuclear power would
forever change the meaning of war. To create a nuclear bomb,nuclear fission must occur. The
process of nuclear fission was splitting the nucleus of an atom. Splitting an atom was caused by
neutrons firing through one atom and then that atom's neutrons shoot off into other atoms, starting a
chain reaction. In October of 1934, Enrico Fermi, and...show more content...
Oppenheimer had named the first tested nuclear explosion "Trinity". This test was for the
implosion–design plutonium bomb, which had the same design as Fat Man, dropped on Nagasaki.
After the successful testing of Trinity, Oppenheimer quoted from the Bhagavad Gita, "If radiance
of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty
one. Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Leo Szilard was a Hungarian Physicist
who dedicated himself to learning how to create a successful chain reaction to make an atomic
bomb before the Germans had a chance to do so. Szilard convinced Albert Einstein to help research
with him on how to create an atomic bomb. The "Einstein–Szilard" letter, sent to President Franklin
D. Roosevelt led to the foundation of research into nuclear fission by the United States government.
This ultimately encouraged the development of the program, the Manhattan Project. Albert Einstein
wrote a letter to the Belgian Ambassador to stop selling uranium to the Germans so they could
slow their progress on the atomic bomb. He also wrote a letter to President Roosevelt announcing
the importance of the United States to create the bomb before other countries. Other than writing
and signing letters, Einstein himself did not play a role in developing the atomic bomb. Enrico
Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938 for his work

Manhattan Project Summary: Secret WWII Atomic Bomb Development Program

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Manhattan Project Summary: Secret WWII Atomic Bomb Development Program