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145-567: It is the longest continually operating settlement house in the country, as well as the largest settlement house in Chicago since the closing of Hull House which was founded by Jane Addams . The Northwestern University Settlement House was one of the major contributions in Chicago history to creating American social reform , as part of a broader, international movement. Advocates of the Settlement movement such as Samuel Barnett and Arnold Toynbee in

290-464: A neutron moderator . The reactor contained 45,000 ultra-pure graphite blocks weighing 360 short tons (330 tonnes ) and was fueled by 5.4 short tons (4.9 tonnes) of uranium metal and 45 short tons (41 tonnes) of uranium oxide . Unlike most subsequent nuclear reactors, it had no radiation shielding or cooling system as it operated at very low power – about one-half watt. The pursuit of a reactor had been touched off by concern that Nazi Germany had

435-457: A nuclear reactor , and with Robert Serber about how that plutonium might be separated from uranium. His report, submitted in November, stated that a bomb was feasible. The final draft of Compton's November 1941 report made no mention of plutonium, but after discussing the latest research with Ernest Lawrence , Compton became convinced that a plutonium bomb was also feasible. In December, Compton

580-481: A rackets court. Stagg Field had been largely unused since the University of Chicago had given up playing American football in 1939, but the rackets courts under West Stands were still used for playing squash and handball . Leona Woods and Anthony L. Turkevich played squash there in 1940. Since it was intended for strenuous exercise, the area was unheated, and very cold in the winter. The nearby North Stands had

725-477: A radiation shielding , with overhead protection from 6 inches (15 cm) of lead and 50 inches (130 cm) of wood. More uranium was used, so it contained 52 short tons (47 t) of uranium and 472 short tons (428 t) of graphite. No cooling system was provided as it only ran at a few kilowatts. CP-2 became operational in March 1943, with a k of 1.055. During the war, Walter Zinn allowed CP-2 to be run around

870-489: A "pile". Emilio Segrè later recalled that: I thought for a while that this term was used to refer to a source of nuclear energy in analogy with Volta 's use of the Italian term pila to denote his own great invention of a source of electrical energy. I was disillusioned by Fermi himself, who told me that he simply used the common English word pile as synonymous with heap . To my surprise, Fermi never seemed to have thought of

1015-414: A baby needed, far better than my Ann Arbor professors did." The ancillary literature between, among and about members of Hull House's inner sanctum of sociologists and philanthropists is littered with such comments, reinforcing the relationship that existed between Taylor Street's Little Italy and Hull House. A review of the ethnic composition of those who registered for and utilized the services provided by

1160-420: A bucket of concentrated cadmium nitrate , which he was to throw over the pile in the event of an emergency. The startup began at 09:54. Walter Zinn removed the zip, the emergency control rod, and secured it. Norman Hilberry stood ready with an axe to cut the scram line, which would allow the zip to fall under the influence of gravity. While Leona Woods called out the count from the boron trifluoride detector in

1305-465: A children's bureau, unemployment compensation , workers' compensation , and other elements of the Progressive agenda during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Jane Addams and many other Hull House residents such as Florence Kelley and Julia Lathrop inspired and stimulated social reforms. Hull House residents generated action. What is less well known, is that Hull House also generated

1450-437: A cubic lattice structure. A radium-beryllium neutron source was positioned near the bottom. The uranium oxide was heated to remove moisture, and packed into the cans while still hot on a shaking table. The cans were then soldered shut. For a workforce, Pegram secured the services of Columbia's football team. It was the custom at the time for football players to perform odd jobs around the university. They were able to manipulate

1595-515: A day shift under Zinn and a night shift under Anderson. For a work force they hired thirty high school dropouts who were eager to earn a bit of money before being drafted into the military. They machined 45,000 graphite blocks enclosing 19,000 pieces of uranium metal and uranium oxide. The graphite arrived from the manufacturers in 4.25-by-4.25-inch (10.8 by 10.8 cm) bars of various lengths. They were cut into standard lengths of 16.5 inches (42 cm), each weighing 19 pounds (8.6 kg). A lathe

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1740-430: A factor k , the second generation of fission events will produce k , the third k and so on. In order for a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction to occur, k must be at least 3 or 4 percent greater than 1. In other words, k must be greater than 1 without crossing the prompt critical threshold that would result in a rapid, exponential increase in the number of fission events. Fermi christened his apparatus

1885-418: A familiar dichotomy emerged, resonating with contemporary readers. Male members of the University of Chicago Sociology Department tended to maintain a distance from their subjects. They operated from their offices within the university, using coordination for their studies. Women sociologists were often viewed by their male counterparts as mere data collectors. Conversely, women sociologists perceived sociology as

2030-782: A few million dollars in any given year, accounting for less than 10 percent of the agency's funding in most of the last decade, according to financial statements filed with the IRS and the Illinois attorney general's office. On January 19, 2012, it was announced that Jane Addams Hull House Association would close in the spring of 2012 and file for bankruptcy due to financial difficulties, after almost 122 years. On Friday, January 27, 2012, Hull House closed unexpectedly and all employees received their final paychecks. Employees learned at time of closing that they would not receive severance pay or earned vacation pay or healthcare coverage. Union officials said that

2175-490: A fissioning uranium nucleus produced 1.73 neutrons on average. It was enough, but a careful design was called for to minimize losses. (Today the average number of neutrons emitted per fissioning uranium-235 nucleus is known to be about 2.4). Szilard estimated he would need about 50 short tons (45 t) of graphite and 5 short tons (4.5 t) of uranium. In December 1940, Fermi and Szilard met with Herbert G. MacPherson and Victor C. Hamister at National Carbon to discuss

2320-627: A form of experimentation. Fortunately, it was replicable. By 1900, nearly 100 settlement houses akin to Hull-House had emerged across the United States. Moreover, Jane spurred a shift in the objectives of existing groups. Women's clubs, initially established by affluent women for cultural enrichment, joined forces to establish the Federation of Women's Clubs, directing their efforts towards civic endeavors such as eradicating child labor, establishing public libraries, and reforming tenements. During that era,

2465-434: A loud voice, George Weil , the only one on the floor, withdrew all but one of the control rods. At 10:37 Fermi ordered Weil to remove all but 13 feet (4.0 m) of the last control rod. Weil withdrew it 6 inches (15 cm) at a time, with measurements being taken at each step. The process was abruptly halted by the automatic control rod reinserting itself, due to its trip level being set too low. At 11:25, Fermi ordered

2610-528: A man claimed that he would rather have the Devil in his house than a picture of The Virgin Mary , his child was born with pointed ears, horns, scale-covered skin, and a tail. The mother was said to have taken the baby to Hull House, where Addams was said to have attempted to have it baptized and wound up locking it in the attic. While initially annoyed about the story, which had no basis in fact, Addams became fascinated by

2755-402: A moderator, while Leo Szilard and Enrico Fermi had asked suppliers about the most common contaminations of graphite after a first failed test. They consequently ensured that the next test would be run with graphite entirely devoid of them. As it turned out, both boron and cadmium were strong neutron poisons . In 1943, CP-1 was moved to Site A , a wartime research facility near Chicago, where it

2900-528: A noble ancestry" and plea for the respect of the audience. Indeed, they did gain this respect because it was said that not even trained college students could give the same play with as much zeal and patriotism. America's improvisational theatre scene has its roots in Hull House, as Viola Spolin , noted improvisational techniques instructor, taught classes and developed her techniques at Hull House. In 1963, when road tours of Broadway productions became common,

3045-476: A pair of ice skating rinks on the ground floor, which although they were unrefrigerated, seldom melted in winter. Allison used the rackets court area to construct a 7-foot (2.1 m) experimental pile before Fermi's group arrived in 1942. The United States Army Corps of Engineers assumed control of the nuclear weapons program in June 1942, and Compton's Metallurgical Laboratory became part of what came to be called

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3190-632: A person with rights, and developed vast programs to integrate immigrants and promote multiculturalism. In January 1891, the President of Northwestern University , Henry Wade Rogers , his wife Emma, and two faculty members founded the Settlement Association. They modeled the house on the University Settlement model, developed by Toynbee Hall in London , even featuring designs from portions of

3335-443: A radium-beryllium source to bombard uranium with neutrons. They discovered significant neutron multiplication in natural uranium, proving that a chain reaction might be possible. Fermi and Szilard still believed that enormous quantities of uranium would be required for an atomic bomb , and therefore concentrated on producing a controlled chain reaction. Fermi urged Alfred O. C. Nier to separate uranium isotopes for determination of

3480-473: A related dining hall, the only remaining survivors on the Hull House complex, are now maintained as a history museum. Addams followed the example of Toynbee Hall , which was founded in 1884 in the East End of London as a center for social reform. She described Toynbee Hall as "a community of university men" who, while living there, held their recreational clubs and social gatherings at the settlement house among

3625-458: A schedule to achieve a controlled nuclear chain reaction by January 1943, and to have an atomic bomb by January 1945. In a nuclear reactor, criticality is achieved when the rate of neutron production is equal to the rate of neutron losses, including both neutron absorption and neutron leakage. When a uranium-235 atom undergoes fission, it releases an average of 2.4 neutrons. In the simplest case of an unreflected , homogeneous, spherical reactor,

3770-525: A short lecture on a topic of interest. Some of the themed evenings were Italian, Greek, German, Polish, etc. Ellen Gates Starr described one Italian evening as having the room packed full with people. One of the ladies who attended "recited a patriotic poem with great spirit" and everyone was moved by it. Throughout the first two decades, along with thousands of immigrants from the surrounding area, Hull House attracted many female residents who later became prominent and influential reformers at various levels. At

3915-401: A similar significance as the University of Chicago did for their male counterparts, serving as a central institution for research and social discourse. Alongside disseminating their discoveries, the insights derived from these inquiries played a crucial role in advocating for legislative reforms aimed at improving the conditions of immigrants and the impoverished. Jane didn't intend to become

4060-413: A slow reaction like the one in a pile where the fission products build up, these neutrons account for about three percent of the total neutron flux . Fermi argued that by using the delayed neutrons , and by carefully controlling the reaction rates as the power is ramped up, a pile can reach criticality at fission rates slightly below that of a chain reaction relying solely on the prompt neutrons from

4205-537: A sociologist. Faderman describes Jane as "probably the first to take the work of female social scientists seriously." She was one of the founding members of the American Sociological Association, established in 1905. Additionally, she lectured on sociology at both the University of Chicago Extension and the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Jane's perspective aside, Hull-House represented

4350-441: A sociologist. In the preface of Hull-House Maps and Papers, she mentioned that the residents of the settlement house typically didn't engage in sociological inquiries, which she distinguished from investigations into labor abuses or factory conditions. She expressed her opposition to viewing the neighborhood as a laboratory, emphasizing that Hull-House aimed to assist the neighbors rather than study them. However, she ended up becoming

4495-518: A stop on many of the "ghosts in Chicago" tours. Charles Hull's wife had died in the house in 1860 and is sometimes thought to haunt it. Other candidates for resident ghosts include the many people who died there of natural causes in the 1870s when it was used as a home for the aged by the Little Sisters of the Poor. In 1913, another Hull House ghost story began circulating. According to this legend, after

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4640-471: A substantial scientific lead. The success of Chicago Pile-1 in producing the chain reaction provided the first vivid demonstration of the feasibility of the military use of nuclear energy by the Allies, as well as the reality of the danger that Nazi Germany could succeed in producing nuclear weapons. Previously, estimates of critical masses had been crude calculations, leading to order-of-magnitude uncertainties about

4785-503: A summer camp, the Bowen Country Club . With its innovative social, educational, and artistic programs, Hull House became the standard bearer for the movement; by 1920, it grew to approximately 500 settlement houses nationally. The Hull mansion and several subsequent acquisitions were continuously renovated to accommodate the changing demands of the association. In the mid-1960s, most of the Hull House buildings were demolished for

4930-466: A tool. While men regarded the data they gathered and the insights they derived as the ultimate goal, women viewed them as indicators of issues needing resolution. Their envisioned role was that of problem solvers. Post-World War II, there arose a trend to quantify and "scientify" all aspects of what are now recognized as the social sciences. Consequently, sociology was embraced by business and science, with male faculty assuming predominant roles. By 1920, at

5075-616: A top photographer with Life . The twenty Hull House Kids were erroneously described as young boys, of Irish ancestry, posing in the Dante School yard on Forquer Street (now Arthington Street). It circulated the world as a "poster child" of sorts for the Hull House social experiment. On April 5, 1987, over a half century later, the Chicago Sun-Times refuted the contention that the Hull House Boys were of Irish ancestry. In doing so,

5220-457: A unique philosophy often described as feminist pragmatism. Philosophy is generally associated with academia. Plato , is known for establishing the academy (387 BCE), which was a forerunner of universities. Men dominated this world of thought --philosophy. Hull House offered an alternative location where women could debate, reflect, ponder and make sense of urban life through the prism of feminine experience. According to Maurice Hamington Hull House

5365-639: A water-cooled production reactor. There remained concerns about the ability of a graphite-moderated reactor being able to produce plutonium on industrial scale, and for this reason the Manhattan Project continued the development of heavy water production facilities . An air-cooled reactor, the X-10 Graphite Reactor , was built at the Clinton Engineer Works in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as part of

5510-474: Is now known as the Site ;A/Plot M Disposal Site . It is marked by a commemorative boulder. By the 1970s, there was increased public concern about the levels of radioactivity at the site, which was used for recreation by local residents. Surveys conducted in the 1980s found strontium-90 in the soil at Plot M, trace amounts of tritium in nearby wells, and plutonium, technetium, caesium, and uranium in

5655-724: Is part of the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois Chicago and serves as a memorial to Addams and other resident social reformers, whose work influenced the lives of their immigrant neighbors, as well as national and international public policy. The museum and its programs connect the work of Hull House residents to important contemporary social issues. The Museum's collection includes over 1,100 artifacts related to Hull House history and over 100 oral interviews conducted with people who have shared their stories about Hull House and

5800-492: The Bowen Country Club summer camp was added to complete the Hull House complex. The facility remained at the original location until it was purchased in 1963 by what was then called the University of Illinois-Circle Campus . The development of University of Illinois-Circle Campus required the demolition of most of the Hull House buildings and the 1967 restoration to the original building by Frazier, Raftery, Orr and Fairbank removed Addams's third floor addition. In addition to

5945-618: The Manhattan Project . Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves, Jr. became director of the Manhattan Project on 23 September 1942. He visited the Metallurgical Laboratory for the first time on 5 October. Between 15 September and 15 November 1942, groups under Herbert Anderson and Walter Zinn constructed 16 experimental piles under the Stagg Field stands. Fermi designed a new pile, which would be spherical to maximize k , which

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6090-584: The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) created a special project headed by Arthur Compton , a Nobel-Prize-winning physics professor at the University of Chicago , to report on the uranium program. Compton's report, submitted in May 1941, foresaw the prospects of developing radiological weapons , nuclear propulsion for ships, and nuclear weapons using uranium-235 or the recently discovered plutonium . In October, he wrote another report on

6235-519: The Sun-Times article listed the names of each of the young boys. All twenty boys were first-generation Italian-Americans, all with vowels at the end of their names. "They grew up to be lawyers and mechanics, sewer workers and dump truck drivers, a candy shop owner, a boxer and a mob boss." Because of the immigrants' loneliness for their homeland, Addams started hosting ethnic evenings at Hull House. This would include ethnic food, dancing, music, and maybe

6380-418: The neutronic reactor no. 2,708,656. The Red Gate Woods later became the original site of Argonne National Laboratory , which replaced the Metallurgical Laboratory on 1 July 1946, with Zinn as its first director. CP-2 and CP-3 operated for ten years before they outlived their usefulness, and Zinn ordered them shut down on 15 May 1954. Their remaining usable fuel was transferred to Chicago Pile-5 at

6525-404: The 60-inch (150 cm) cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley and found that it had 1.7 times the thermal neutron capture cross section of uranium-235. At the time only such minute quantities of plutonium-239 had been produced in cyclotrons, and it was not possible to produce a sufficiently large quantity that way. Compton discussed with Wigner how plutonium might be produced in

6670-488: The AGOT graphite is considered as the first true nuclear-grade graphite . By November 1942, National Carbon had shipped 255 short tons (231 t) of AGOT graphite to the University of Chicago, where it became the primary source of graphite to be used in the construction of Chicago Pile-1. Szilard drafted a confidential letter to the U.S. President, Franklin D. Roosevelt , warning of a German nuclear weapon project , explaining

6815-639: The Argonne National Laboratory's new site in DuPage County , and the CP-2 and CP-3 reactors were dismantled in 1955 and 1956. Some of the graphite blocks from CP-1/CP-2 were reused in the reflector of the TREAT reactor. High-level nuclear waste such as fuel and heavy water were shipped to Oak Ridge, Tennessee , for disposal. The rest was encased in concrete and buried in a 40-foot-deep (12 m) trench in what

6960-459: The Chicago School." Settlement houses were established on the principles of Christian Socialism and the Social Gospel, which held the belief that the application of social sciences could address the challenges faced by urban residents in industrialized societies. Jane strongly asserted that the primary beneficiaries of the efforts at the settlement house were the residents themselves, rather than

7105-590: The Christian churches. According to the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, "Some social settlements were linked to religious institutions. Others, like Hull-House [co-founded by Addams], were secular." In 1895, the Hull-House Association released "Hull-House Maps and Papers." This publication consisted of essays authored by Hull-House residents and collaborators, overseen by Jane Addams. Alongside

7250-592: The German chemist Max Bodenstein for a situation in which two molecules react to form not just the final reaction products, but also some unstable molecules that can further react with the original substances to cause more to react. The concept of a nuclear chain reaction was first hypothesized by the Hungarian scientist Leo Szilard on 12 September 1933. Szilard realized that if a nuclear reaction produced neutrons or dineutrons , which then caused further nuclear reactions,

7395-579: The Hull House Theater in the Jane Addams Center at 3212 North Broadway fostered the development of Chicago Theater companies for the rest of the century. Founder Robert Sickinger created an environment to nourish young talent with professionalism. Addams was head resident until her death in 1935. Hull House continued to serve the community surrounding the Halsted location until it was displaced by

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7540-537: The Hull House complex, during its 74 years as a tenant of the near-west side, suggests an ethnic bias. Of the 257 known WWII veterans who were alumni of the Bowen Country Club, "virtually all had a vowel at the end of their names...denoting their Italian heritage." A historic picture, "Meet the Hull House Kids," was taken on a summer day in 1924 by Wallace K. Kirkland Sr. , Hull House Director. He later became

7685-604: The Hull House receptions that she insisted they had come from Italy. She had never seen anything as beautiful in America despite the fact that she lived within ten blocks of a florist shop. Her limited view of America came from the untidy street she lived on and the long struggle to adapt to American ways. The settlement was also gradually drawn into advocating for legislative reforms at the municipal, state and federal levels, addressing issues such as child labor , women's suffrage , healthcare reform and immigration policy . Some claim that

7830-447: The Hull House residents to confront the establishment, eventually partnering with them in the design and implementation of programs intended to enhance and improve the opportunities for success by the largely immigrant population. According to Christie and Gauvreau (2001), while the Christian settlement houses sought to Christianize, Jane Addams, "had come to epitomize the force of secular humanism." Her image was, however, "reinvented" by

7975-490: The Jane Addams' Hull House. The Northwestern University Settlement House formally opened its new building at 1400 W. Augusta Boulevard, in 1901. Northwestern University Settlement House provided the poor of Chicago's West Town neighborhood with educational and recreational programs. Its mission was to provide resources that empower its "neighbors" to take personal responsibility for overcoming the obstacles of poverty and improving

8120-410: The U.S. government. An Advisory Committee on Uranium was formed under Lyman J. Briggs , a scientist and the director of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards . Its first meeting on 21 October 1939 was attended by Szilard, Teller, and Wigner. The scientists persuaded the U.S. Army and Navy to provide $ 6,000 for Szilard to purchase supplies for experiments—in particular, more graphite. In April 1941,

8265-444: The UK, and Lillian Wald , Harriet Vittum , and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Jane Addams in the U.S., influenced the social policy arena. Among the many achievements in changing public institutions, they promoted fair salaries for workers and improvement of poor neighborhoods, turned feminism into a social force, advocated the concept of juvenile court, brought about recognition of the child as

8410-513: The United States entered World War II, Compton decided on his own location, the University of Chicago, where he knew he had the unstinting support of university administration. Chicago also had a central location, and scientists, technicians and facilities were more readily available in the Midwest , where war work had not yet taken them away. In contrast, Columbia University was engaged in uranium enrichment efforts under Harold Urey and John Dunning, and

8555-572: The United States' major urban areas in radioactive fission products. But the physics of the system suggested that the pile could be safely shut down even in the event of a runaway reaction . When a fuel atom undergoes fission, it releases neutrons that strike other fuel atoms in a chain reaction. The time between absorbing the neutron and undergoing fission is measured in nanoseconds. Szilard had noted that this reaction leaves behind fission products that may also release neutrons, but do so over much longer periods, from microseconds to as long as minutes. In

8700-453: The United States, and their work influenced urban planning and the transition to a branch library system. At the state level Hull House influenced legislation on child labor laws, occupational safety and health provisions, compulsory education , immigrant rights, and pension laws. These experiences translated to success at the federal level, working with the settlement house network to champion national child labor laws, women's suffrage,

8845-527: The University of Chicago, all female professors were transferred from the Sociology Department to the Department of Social Services. One of the first newspaper articles ever written about Hull House quotes the following invitation sent to the residents of the Hull House neighborhood. It begins with: " Mio Carissimo Amico "...and is signed, Le Signorine , Jane Addams and Ellen Starr. That invitation to

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8990-426: The agency closed while owing employees more than $ 27,000 in unpaid expense reimbursement claims. The University of Illinois Chicago's Jane Addams Hull-House Museum (unaffiliated with the agency), however, remains open. Founders and workers, sorted by surname Residents or non-resident clients Chicago Pile-1 Chicago Pile-1 ( CP-1 ) was the world's first artificial nuclear reactor . On 2 December 1942,

9135-601: The area. In 1994, the United States Department of Energy and the Argonne National Laboratory yielded to public pressure and earmarked $ 24.7 million and $ 3.4 million respectively to rehabilitate the site. As part of the cleanup, 500 cubic yards (380 m ) of radioactive waste was removed and sent to the Hanford Site for disposal. By 2002, the Illinois Department of Public Health had determined that

9280-418: The beginning, Addams and Starr volunteered as on-call doctors when the real doctors either didn't show up or weren't available. They acted as midwives, saved babies from neglect, prepared the dead for burial, nursed the sick, and sheltered domestic violence victims. For example, one Italian bride had lost her wedding ring and in turn was beaten by her husband for a week. She sought shelter at the settlement and it

9425-422: The celebration that day. Addams had studied child behavior and painfully concluded that "children robbed of childhood were likely to become dull, sullen men and women working mindless jobs, or criminals for whom the adventure of crime became the only way to break out of the bleakness of their lives" Addams' thinking regarding the importance of childhood play opportunities contributed to a national conversation about

9570-502: The children of European immigrants produced Shakespeare" as well as others. Early one December, the Greeks performed Odysseus in Chicago . The auditorium was filled with a multi-ethnic crowd and packed too close for comfort. The audience was very eager and gave the performers "rapt attention." They watched neighbors and co-workers execute this primitive play, but it was very powerful, plausible, and personal. The actors seemed to pay "tribute to

9715-485: The clock, and its design was suitable for conducting experiments. CP-2 was joined by Chicago Pile-3 , the first heavy water reactor, which went critical on 15 May 1944. The reactors were used to undertake research related to weapons, such as investigations of the properties of tritium . Wartime experiments included measuring the neutron absorption cross-section of elements and compounds. Albert Wattenberg recalled that about 10 elements were studied each month, and 75 over

9860-418: The community, written during the first year of Hull House's existence, suggests that the inner core of what Addams labeled "The Hull House Neighborhood" was overwhelmingly Italian at that time. "10,000 Italians lived between the river and Halsted Street ." By all accounts, the greater Hull House neighborhood (Chicago's Near West Side ) was a mix of various ethnic groups that had immigrated to Chicago. There

10005-488: The conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago." Hull House was located in Chicago, Illinois, and took its name from the Italianate mansion built by real estate magnate Charles Jerald Hull (1820–1889) at 800 South Halsted Street in 1856. The building was located in what had once been a fashionable part of town, but by 1889, when Addams was searching for a location for her experiment, it had descended into squalor. This

10150-558: The construction of the University of Illinois Chicago . The original building and one additional building (which has been moved 200 yards (182.9 m)) survive today. On June 23, 1965, it was designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark . On October 15, 1966, the day that the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was enacted, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places . On June 12, 1974,

10295-405: The control circuits, but after 28 minutes, the alarm bells went off to notify everyone that the neutron flux had passed the preset safety level, and he ordered Zinn to release the zip. The reaction rapidly halted. The pile had run for about 4.5 minutes at about 0.5 watts. Wigner opened a bottle of Chianti , which they drank from paper cups. Compton notified Conant by telephone. The conversation

10440-441: The control rods reinserted. He then announced that it was lunch time. The experiment resumed at 14:00. Weil worked the final control rod while Fermi carefully monitored the neutron activity. Fermi announced that the pile had gone critical (reached a self-sustaining reaction) at 15:25. Fermi switched the scale on the recorder to accommodate the rapidly increasing electric current from the boron trifluoride detector. He wanted to test

10585-477: The course of a year. An accident involving radium and beryllium powder caused a dangerous drop in his white blood cell count that lasted for three years. As the dangers of things such as inhaling uranium oxide became more apparent, experiments were conducted on the effects of radioactive substances on laboratory test animals. Though the design was held secret for a decade, Szilard and Fermi jointly patented it, with an initial filing date of 19 December 1944 as

10730-441: The critical radius was calculated to be approximately: R c r i t ≈ π M k − 1 {\displaystyle R_{crit}\approx {\frac {\pi M}{\sqrt {k-1}}}} , where M is the average distance that a neutron travels before it is absorbed, and k is the average neutron multiplication factor . The neutrons in succeeding reactions will be amplified by

10875-408: The effect the episode had on old women in the neighborhood and used the episode as a basis for her book The Long Road of Woman's Memory . While a great many erroneous stories have circulated about the building, Addams is known to have spoken to several friends about one of the front bedrooms on the second floor being haunted – she and a friend once thought they saw a "woman in white" ghost there, and

11020-403: The essays, the book featured two maps illustrating the spatial distribution of immigrants from eighteen different nationalities residing within a one-third square mile radius around Hull-House. "The book was notable for its impact on the University of Chicago Sociology Department ... Development of mapping as a statistical technique to reveal social group patterns became a major contribution of

11165-474: The experiment. There were 49 scientists present. Although most of the S-1 Executive Committee was in Chicago, only Crawford Greenewalt was present, at Compton's invitation. Other dignitaries present included Szilard, Wigner and Spedding. Fermi, Compton, Anderson and Zinn gathered around the controls on the balcony, which was originally intended as a viewing platform. Samuel Allison stood ready with

11310-429: The first child welfare and outpatient pediatric clinic. Later, the settlement branched out and offered services to ameliorate some of the effects of poverty. A public dispensary provided nutritious food for the sick as well as a daycare center and public baths. Among the courses Hull House offered was a bookbinding course, which was timely — given the employment opportunities in the growing printing trade. Hull House

11455-412: The first generation of New Women wove the traditional ways of their mothers into the heart of their brave new world. The social activists, often single, were led by educated New Women . Hull House became, at its inception in 1889, "a community of university women" whose main purpose was to provide social and educational opportunities for working class people (many of them recent European immigrants) in

11600-565: The first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was initiated in CP-1 during an experiment led by Enrico Fermi . The secret development of the reactor was the first major technical achievement for the Manhattan Project , the Allied effort to create nuclear weapons during World War II . Developed by the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago , CP-1 was built under

11745-557: The first nuclear fission experiment in the United States on 25 January 1939. Subsequent work confirmed that fast neutrons were indeed produced by fission. Szilard obtained permission from the head of the Physics Department at Columbia, George B. Pegram , to use a laboratory for three months, and he persuaded Walter Zinn to become his collaborator. They conducted a simple experiment on the seventh floor of Pupin Hall at Columbia, using

11890-458: The fissile component, and, on 29 February 1940, Nier separated the first uranium-235 sample, which, after being mailed to Dunning at Columbia, was confirmed to be the isolated fissile material. When he was working in Rome, Italy, Fermi had discovered that collisions between neutrons and neutron moderators can slow the neutrons, and thereby make them more likely to be captured by uranium nuclei, causing

12035-437: The fission reactions. Since the rate of release of these neutrons depends on fission events taking place some time earlier, there is a delay between any power spikes and the later criticality event. This time gives the operators leeway; if a spike in the prompt neutron flux is seen, they have several minutes before this causes a runaway reaction. If a neutron absorber, or neutron poison , is injected at any time during this period,

12180-436: The graphite. The entire pile was then canned by soldering sheet metal around it, and the contents heated above the boiling point of water to remove moisture. The result was a k of 0.918. In Chicago, Samuel K. Allison had found a suitable location 60 feet (18 m) long, 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and 26 feet (7.9 m) high, sunk slightly below ground level, in a space under the stands at Stagg Field originally built as

12325-442: The heavy cans with ease. The final result was a disappointing k of 0.87. Compton felt that having teams at Columbia University, Princeton University , the University of Chicago and the University of California was creating too much duplication and not enough collaboration, and he resolved to concentrate the work in one location. Nobody wanted to move, and everybody argued in favor of their own location. In January 1942, soon after

12470-409: The holes in the graphite in lieu of the uranium oxide pseudospheres. The process of filling the balloon with carbon dioxide would not be necessary, and twenty layers could be dispensed with. According to Fermi's new calculations, the countdown would reach 1 between the 56th and 57th layers. The resulting pile was therefore flatter on the top than on the bottom. Anderson called a halt after the 57th layer

12615-538: The inner core of Addams' "Hull House Neighborhood", remained as the laboratory upon which the social and philanthropic groups of Hull House elitists had tested their theories and formulated their challenges to the establishment. The synergy between Taylor Street's Little Italy and the Hull House complex; i.e., the settlement house and its summer camp, the Bowen Country Club , is well documented. Dr. Alice Hamilton , an early member of that elite Hull House hierarchy, wrote in her autobiography, "Those Italian women knew what

12760-496: The local community. Nevertheless, Jane recognized that to effectively tackle these issues, it was essential to comprehend them thoroughly. Consequently, she mobilized teams to investigate social problems in the vicinity of Hull-House. Hassencahl asserts that Hull-House evolved into a globally significant hub of intellectual activity, attracting leaders from various fields to engage in teaching, studying, and research. Deegan further elaborates that for women sociologists, Hull-House held

12905-473: The major relevant contaminant was boron, both because of its concentration and its affinity for absorbing neutrons, confirming a suspicion of Szilard's. More importantly, MacPherson and Hamister believed that techniques for producing graphite of a sufficient purity could be developed. Had Fermi and Szilard not consulted MacPherson and Hamister, they might have concluded, incorrectly, as the Germans did, that graphite

13050-441: The mansion, of the dozen additional buildings only the craftsman style dining hall (built in 1905 and designed by Pond & Pond) survives and it was moved 200 yards (182.9 m) from its original site to be next to the mansion. Addams noted that upon moving in, the building had a "half-skeptical reputation for a haunted attic." Over the years, numerous stories of ghosts and hauntings have surrounded Hull House, making it

13195-404: The materials for Fermi's new pile would be on hand before the new structure was completed. In early November, Fermi came to Compton with a proposal to build the experimental pile under the stands at Stagg Field. The risk of building an operational reactor running at criticality in a populated area was a significant issue, as there was a danger of a catastrophic nuclear meltdown blanketing one of

13340-452: The matter to my superior. But this would have been unfair. President Hutchins was in no position to make an independent judgment of the hazards involved. Based on considerations of the University's welfare, the only answer he could have given would have been—no. And this answer would have been wrong. Compton informed Groves of his decision at the 14 November meeting of the S-1 Executive Committee. Although Groves "had serious misgivings about

13485-418: The messy world of lived experience - with emphasis on the under explored world of women's experience. Rather than focusing on fixed individual characteristics (virtues), her social ethics engaged the individual in broader society and focused on a social responsibility and participatory democracy. In 1897, Alice Hamilton after graduating from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine joined Hull House and founded one of

13630-417: The morning of 16 November 1942. The first layer placed was made up entirely of graphite blocks, with no uranium. Layers without uranium were alternated with two layers containing uranium, so the uranium was enclosed in graphite. Unlike later reactors, it had no radiation shielding or cooling system, as it was only intended to be operated at very low power. The work was carried out in twelve-hour shifts, with

13775-476: The need for playgrounds and a movement that started the Playground Association of America Also, one volunteer, Jenny Dow, started a kindergarten class for children left at the settlement while their mothers worked in the sweatshops. Within three weeks, Dow had 24 registered kindergartners and 70 on a waiting list. At the municipal level, their pursuit of legal reforms led to the first juvenile court in

13920-473: The pile was dismantled and moved to Site A in the Argonne Forest, now known as Red Gate Woods . There the original materials were used to build Chicago Pile-2 (CP-2). Instead of being spherical, the new reactor was built in a cube-like shape, about 25 feet (7.6 m) tall with a base approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) square. It was surrounded by concrete walls 5 feet (1.5 m) thick that acted as

14065-522: The poor people and in the same style they would in their own circle. Addams and Starr established Hull House as a settlement house on September 18, 1889. In the 19th century a women's movement began to promote education and autonomy, and to break into traditionally male-dominated occupations for women. Organizations led by women, bonded by sisterhood, were formed for social reform, including settlement houses such as Hull House, situated in working class and poor neighborhoods. To develop "new roles for women,

14210-502: The possibility of creating a nuclear chain reaction with uranium, but initial experiments were unsuccessful. In order for a chain reaction to occur, fissioning uranium atoms had to emit additional neutrons to keep the reaction going. At Columbia University in New York, Italian physicist Enrico Fermi collaborated with Americans John Dunning , Herbert L. Anderson , Eugene T. Booth , G. Norris Glasoe , and Francis G. Slack to conduct

14355-473: The possibility of nuclear weapons, and encouraging the development of a program that could result in their creation. With the help of Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller , he approached his old friend and collaborator Albert Einstein in August 1939, and convinced him to sign the letter, lending his prestige to the proposal. The Einstein–Szilard letter resulted in the establishment of research into nuclear fission by

14500-407: The possible existence of impurities in graphite, and the procurement of graphite of a purity that had never been produced commercially. National Carbon, a chemical company, had taken the then unusual step of hiring MacPherson, a physicist, to research carbon arc lamps, a major commercial use for graphite at that time. Because of his work studying the spectroscopy of the carbon arc, MacPherson knew that

14645-459: The practicality of an atomic bomb. For this report, he worked with Fermi on calculations of the critical mass of uranium-235. He also discussed the prospects for uranium enrichment with Harold Urey . Niels Bohr and John Wheeler had theorized that heavy isotopes with odd atomic mass numbers were fissile . If so, then plutonium-239 was likely to be fissile. In May 1941, Emilio Segrè and Glenn Seaborg produced 28 μg of plutonium-239 in

14790-503: The process might be self-perpetuating. Szilard proposed using mixtures of lighter known isotopes which produced neutrons in copious amounts, and also entertained the possibility of using uranium as a fuel. He filed a patent for his idea of a simple nuclear reactor the following year. The discovery of nuclear fission by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, and its theoretical explanation (and naming) by their collaborators Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch , opened up

14935-532: The quality of their lives. It was one of the first to aid Polish immigrants in the late 19th century to the early 20th century. Today, Northwestern University Settlement House continues to run a traditional settlement operation, providing holistic educational, experiential, arts and emergency services to the entire family, currently serving more than 40,000 individuals annually. 41°54′00″N 87°39′46″W  /  41.9000°N 87.6628°W  / 41.9000; -87.6628 Hull House Hull House

15080-440: The reactor will shut down. Consequently, the reaction can be controlled with electromechanical control systems such as control rods . Compton felt this delay was enough to provide a critical margin of safety, and allowed Fermi to build Chicago Pile-1 at Stagg Field. Compton later explained that: As a responsible officer of the University of Chicago, according to every rule of organizational protocol, I should have taken

15225-513: The relationship between his pile and Volta's. Another grant, this time of $ 40,000, was obtained from the S-1 Uranium Committee to purchase more materials, and in August 1941 Fermi began to plan the building of a sub-critical assembly to test with a smaller structure whether a larger one would work. The so-called exponential pile he proposed to build was 8 feet (2.4 m) long, 8 feet (2.4 m) wide and 11 feet (3.4 m) high. This

15370-471: The remaining materials posed no danger to public health. The successful test of CP-1 not only proved that a nuclear reactor was feasible, it demonstrated that the k factor was larger than originally thought. This removed the objections to the use of air or water as a coolant rather than expensive helium. It also meant that there was greater latitude in the choice of materials for coolant pipes and control mechanisms. Wigner now pressed ahead with his design for

15515-563: The remnants of other immigrant groups living on the outer fringes of the Hull House Neighborhood, disappeared long before the physical demise of Hull House. The exodus of most ethnic groups began shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. Their businesses, e.g. Greektown and Maxwell Street, however, remained. Italian Americans were the only immigrant group that endured as a vibrant on-going community. That community came to be known as " Little Italy ". Taylor Street's Little Italy,

15660-436: The rods was simply a variable resistor , controlling an electric motor that would spool the clothesline wire over a pulley that also had two lead weights attached to ensure it would fail-safe and return to its zero position when released. About two layers were laid per shift. Woods' boron trifluoride neutron counter was inserted at the 15th layer. Thereafter, readings were taken at the end of each shift. Fermi divided

15805-432: The same ghost was later seen by a group of girls when the room was used as a dressing room for the adjacent theater. Though Addams called it "haunted," she seems to have been more amused than frightened by it. Addams felt that the community benefits from theater plays and thus established an amateur theater in the Hull House in 1899. "The neighborhood Greeks performed the classic plays of antiquity in their own language and

15950-508: The settlement house movement: residence, research, and reform. These involved "close cooperation with the neighborhood people, scientific study of the causes of poverty and dependence, communication of these facts to the public, and persistent pressure for [legislative and social] reform..." Hull House conducted careful studies of the Near West Side, Chicago community, which became known as "The Hull House Neighborhood". These studies enabled

16095-487: The size of a hypothetical bomb. The successful use of graphite as a moderator paved the way for progress in the Allied effort, whereas the German program languished partly because of the belief that scarce and expensive heavy water would have to be used for that purpose. The Germans had failed to account for the importance of boron and cadmium impurities in the graphite samples on which they ran their test of its usability as

16240-594: The south and the Canadian–French to the northwest. From the river on the east end, on out to the western ends of what came to be known as " Little Italy ", from Roosevelt Road on the south to the Harrison Street delta on the north, became the port-of-call for Italians who continued to immigrate to Chicago from the shores of southern Italy until a quota system was implemented in 1924 for most Southern Europeans. The Greektown and Maxwell Street residents, along with

16385-401: The square of the radius of the pile by the intensity of the radioactivity to obtain a metric that counted down to one as the pile approached criticality. At the 15th layer, it was 390; at the 19th it was 320; at the 25th it was 270 and by the 36th it was only 149. The original design was for a spherical pile, but as work proceeded, it became clear that this would not be necessary. The new graphite

16530-446: The successful reactor was assembled in November 1942 by a team of about 30 that, in addition to Fermi, included scientists Leo Szilard (who had previously formulated an idea for non-fission chain reaction ), Leona Woods , Herbert L. Anderson , Walter Zinn , Martin D. Whitaker , and George Weil . The reactor used natural uranium. This required a very large amount of material in order to reach criticality, along with graphite used as

16675-467: The surrounding neighborhood. Because of its heavy reliance on public support—as much as 85 percent of its revenue came from such sources—Hull House Association had essentially become an arm of government, unlike anything Ms. Addams might recognize today. When Clarence Wood, then the head of Chicago's Human Relations Commission, took over in 2000, he promised to move toward more private fundraising. But that effort appears to have failed to bring in more than

16820-586: The surrounding neighborhood. The "residents" (volunteers at Hull were given this title) held classes in literature, history, art, domestic activities (such as sewing), and many other subjects. Prominent scholars and social reformers such as John Dewey , George Herbert Mead , Max Weber , and W.E.B. Du Bois lectured at Hull House. In addition, Hull House held concerts that were free to everyone, offered free lectures on current issues, and operated clubs for both children and adults. In 1892, Addams published her thoughts on what has been described as "the three R's" of

16965-738: The surviving Hull mansion was designated as a Chicago Landmark . Hull mansion was one of the first four structures to be listed on both the Chicago Registered Historic Places and the National Register of Historic Places list (along with Chicago Pile-1 , Robie House & Lorado Taft Midway Studios ). After The Hull House Association moved from the original buildings complex in the 1960s, it continued to provide social services in multiple locations throughout Chicago. It finally ceased operations in January 2012. The Hull mansion and

17110-415: The uranium to fission. Szilard suggested to Fermi that they use carbon in the form of graphite as a moderator. As a back-up plan, he considered heavy water . This contained deuterium , which would not absorb neutrons like ordinary hydrogen, and was a better neutron moderator than carbon; but heavy water was expensive and difficult to produce, and several tons of it might be needed. Fermi estimated that

17255-527: The urban branch campus of the University of Illinois in the 1960s. Until 2012, the social service center role was performed throughout the city at various locations under an umbrella organization, the Jane Addams Hull House Association. The original Hull House building itself is a museum, part of the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois Chicago , and is open to the public. The Jane Addams Hull House Association

17400-410: The west viewing stands of the original Stagg Field . Although the project's civilian and military leaders had misgivings about the possibility of a disastrous runaway reaction, they trusted Fermi's safety calculations and decided they could carry out the experiment in a densely populated area. Fermi described the reactor as "a crude pile of black bricks and wooden timbers". After a series of attempts,

17545-561: The wisdom of Compton's suggestion", he did not interfere. James B. Conant , the chairman of the NDRC, was reported to have turned white. But because of the urgency and their confidence in Fermi's calculations, no one objected. Chicago Pile-1 was encased within a balloon so that the air inside could be replaced by carbon dioxide . Anderson had a dark gray balloon manufactured by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company . A 25-foot (7.6 m) cube-shaped balloon

17690-439: The work of the Hull House marked the beginning of what we know today as "Social Welfare". At the neighborhood level, Hull House established the city's first public playground, bathhouse, and public gymnasium (in 1893), pursued educational and political reform, and investigated housing, working, and sanitation issues. The playground opened on May Day in 1893, located on Polk Street. Families dressed in party attire and came to join

17835-462: Was a settlement house in Chicago , Illinois , that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr . Located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Hull House, named after the original house's first owner Charles Jerald Hull, opened to serve recently arrived European immigrants. By 1911, Hull House had expanded to 13 buildings. In 1912, the Hull House complex was completed with the addition of

17980-421: Was an incubator of ideas where feminist pragmatism was jump started. The Hull House philosophy, contrasted sharply with the approach of Plato. He used geometry and math as a spring board to a theory of Forms, which were "ideal, eternal, unchanging and pleasingly independence of earthly visible things. Addams, on the other hand, was not interested in abstract truth. She wanted her philosophic approach to incorporate

18125-503: Was apparent that the proposed facilities would be too extensive for the site, and it was decided to build the pilot plant elsewhere. The subcritical piles posed little danger, but Groves felt that it would be prudent to locate a critical pile—a fully functional nuclear reactor—at a more remote site. A building at Argonne to house Fermi's experimental pile was commenced, with its completion scheduled for 20 October. Due to industrial disputes, construction fell behind schedule, and it became clear

18270-528: Was discovered in Schermerhorn Hall . The pile was built in September 1941 from 4-by-4-by-12-inch (10 by 10 by 30 cm) graphite blocks and tinplate iron cans of uranium oxide. The cans were 8-by-8-by-8-inch (20 by 20 by 20 cm) cubes. When filled with uranium oxide, each weighed about 60 pounds (27 kg). There were 288 cans in all, and each was surrounded by graphite blocks so the whole would form

18415-474: Was given credit for founding the American Little Theatre Movement . The success of Hull House led Paul Kellogg to refer to the group as the "Great Ladies of Halsted Street". The objective of Hull House, as stated in its charter, was: "To provide a center for a higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises, and to investigate and improve

18560-466: Was granted to her. Also, a baby born with a cleft palate was unwanted by his mother so he was kept at the Hull House for six weeks after an operation. In another case, a woman was about to give birth to an illegitimate baby, so none of the Irish matrons would touch it. Addams and Starr stepped in and delivered this helpless little one. Finally, a female Italian immigrant was so thrilled about fresh roses at one of

18705-404: Was hesitant to add a third secret project. Before leaving for Chicago, Fermi's team made one last attempt to build a working pile at Columbia. Since the cans had absorbed neutrons, they were dispensed with. Instead, the uranium oxide, heated to 250 °C (480 °F) to dry it out, was pressed into cylindrical holes 3 inches (7.6 cm) long and 3 inches (7.6 cm) in diameter drilled into

18850-490: Was in an impromptu code: Compton: The Italian navigator has landed in the New World. Conant: How were the natives? Compton: Very friendly. On 12 December 1942, CP-1's power output was increased to 200 W, enough to power a light bulb. Lacking shielding of any kind, it was a radiation hazard for everyone in the vicinity, and further testing was continued at 0.5 W. Operation was terminated on 28 February 1943, and

18995-409: Was no discrimination of race, language, creed, or tradition for those who entered the doors of the Hull House. Every person was treated with respect. The Bethlehem-Howard Neighborhood Center records substantiate that, "Germans and Jews resided south of that inner core (south of twelfth street)...The Greek delta formed by Harrison, Halsted and Blue Island Streets served as a buffer to the Irish residing to

19140-607: Was now producing 30 short tons (27 t) a month. Metallic uranium also began arriving in larger quantities, the product of newly developed techniques. On 25 June, the Army and the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) had selected a site in the Argonne Forest near Chicago for a plutonium pilot plant; this became known as " Site A ". 1,025 acres (415 ha) were leased from Cook County in August, but by September it

19285-453: Was one of Chicago's largest nonprofit social welfare organizations. Its mission was to improve social conditions for underserved people and communities by providing creative, innovative programs and by advocating for related public policy reforms. The Association had more than 50 programs at over 40 sites throughout Chicago and served approximately 60,000 individuals, families, and community members every year. The Jane Addams Hull-House Museum

19430-462: Was partly due to the rapid and overwhelming influx of immigrants into the Near West Side neighborhood. Charles Hull granted his former home to his cousin Helen Culver , who in turn granted it to Addams on a 25-year rent-free lease. By 1907, Addams had acquired 13 buildings surrounding Hull's mansion. Between 1889 and 1935, Addams and Ellen Gates Starr continuously redeveloped the building. In 1912,

19575-407: Was placed in charge of the plutonium project. Its objectives were to produce reactors to convert uranium to plutonium, to find ways to chemically separate the plutonium from the uranium, and to design and build an atomic bomb. It fell to Compton to decide which of the different types of reactor designs the scientists should pursue, even though a successful reactor had not yet been built. He proposed

19720-443: Was placed. When completed, the wooden frame supported an elliptical-shaped structure, 20 feet (6.1 m) high, 6 feet (1.8 m) wide at the ends and 25 feet (7.6 m) across the middle. It contained 6 short tons (5.4 t) of uranium metal, 50 short tons (45 t) of uranium oxide and 400 short tons (360 t) of graphite, at an estimated cost of $ 2.7 million. The next day, 2 December 1942, everybody assembled for

19865-538: Was predicted to be around 1.04, thereby achieving criticality. Leona Woods was detailed to build boron trifluoride neutron detectors as soon as she completed her doctoral thesis. She also helped Anderson locate the required large number of 4-by-6-inch (10 by 15 cm) timbers at lumber yards in Chicago's south side . Shipments of high-purity graphite arrived, mainly from National Carbon, and high-purity uranium dioxide from Mallinckrodt in St Louis, Missouri, which

20010-505: Was purer, and 6 short tons (5.4 t) of very pure metallic uranium began to arrive from the Ames Project at Iowa State University , where Harley Wilhelm and his team had developed a new process to produce uranium metal. Westinghouse Lamp Plant supplied 3 short tons (2.7 t), which it produced in a rush with a makeshift process. The 2.25-inch (5.7 cm) metallic uranium cylinders, known as "Spedding's eggs", were dropped in

20155-404: Was reconfigured to become Chicago Pile-2 (CP-2). There, it was operated for research until 1954, when it was dismantled and buried. The stands at Stagg Field were demolished in August 1957 and a memorial quadrangle now marks the experiment site's location, which is now a National Historic Landmark and a Chicago Landmark . The idea of a chemical chain reaction was first suggested in 1913 by

20300-420: Was responsible for instrumentation. They also fabricated the control rods , which were cadmium sheets nailed to flat wooden strips, cadmium being a potent neutron absorber, and the scram line, a manila rope that when cut would drop a control rod into the pile and stop the reaction. Richard Fox, who made the control-rod mechanism for the pile, remarked that the manual speed control that the operator had over

20445-432: Was somewhat unusual, but the Manhattan Project's AAA priority rating ensured prompt delivery with no questions asked. A block and tackle was used to haul it into place, with the top secured to the ceiling and three sides to the walls. The remaining side, the one facing the balcony from which Fermi directed the operation, was furled like an awning. A circle was drawn on the floor, and the stacking of graphite blocks began on

20590-475: Was too large to fit in the Pupin Physics Laboratories. Fermi recalled that: We went to Dean Pegram, who was then the man who could carry out magic around the University, and we explained to him that we needed a big room. He scouted around the campus and we went with him to dark corridors and under various heating pipes and so on, to visit possible sites for this experiment and eventually a big room

20735-399: Was unsuitable for use as a neutron moderator. Over the next two years, MacPherson, Hamister and Lauchlin M. Currie developed thermal purification techniques for the large scale production of low boron content graphite. The resulting product was designated AGOT graphite (" Acheson Graphite Ordinary Temperature") by National Carbon. With a neutron absorption cross section of 4.97 mbarns ,

20880-405: Was used to drill 3.25-inch (8.3 cm) holes in the blocks for the control rods and the uranium. A hydraulic press was used to shape the uranium oxide into "pseudospheres", cylinders with rounded ends. Drill bits had to be sharpened after each 60 holes, which worked out to be about once an hour. Graphite dust soon filled the air and made the floor slippery. Another group, under Volney C. Wilson,

21025-457: Was well known for its success in aiding American assimilation, especially with immigrant youth. Hull House became the center of the movement to promote hand workmanship as a moral regenerative force. The Hull-House Kilns program was directed by Myrtle Merritt French . Under the direction of Laura Dainty Pelham their theater group performed the Chicago premiers of several plays by John Galsworthy , Henrik Ibsen , and George Bernard Shaw , and

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