167-541: William Sterling Parsons (26 November 1901 – 5 December 1953) was an American naval officer who worked as an ordnance expert on the Manhattan Project during World War II . He is best known for being the weaponeer on the Enola Gay , the aircraft which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan , in 1945. To avoid the possibility of a nuclear explosion if the aircraft crashed and burned on takeoff, he decided to arm
334-550: A German atomic bomb project would develop one first, especially among scientists who were refugees from Nazi Germany and other fascist countries. In August 1939, Hungarian-born physicists Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner drafted the Einstein–Szilard letter , which warned of the potential development of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". It urged the United States to acquire stockpiles of uranium ore and accelerate
501-733: A neutron moderator . The S-1 Committee recommended pursuing all five technologies. This was approved by Bush, Conant, and Brigadier General Wilhelm D. Styer , who had been designated the Army's representative on nuclear matters. Bush and Conant then took the recommendation to the Top Policy Group with a budget proposal for $ 54 million for construction by the United States Army Corps of Engineers , $ 31 million for research and development by OSRD and $ 5 million for contingencies in fiscal year 1943. They sent it on 17 June 1942, to
668-607: A AAA rating whenever it was required. Nelson initially balked but quickly caved in when Groves threatened to go to the President. Groves promised not to use the AAA rating unless it was necessary. It soon transpired that for the routine requirements of the project the AAA rating was too high but the AA-3 rating was too low. After a long campaign, Groves finally received AA-1 authority on 1 July 1944. According to Groves, "In Washington you became aware of
835-678: A US Marine who had been badly wounded in the Battle of Iwo Jima . Parsons also met with Captain Charles B. McVay III , the skipper of the cruiser USS Indianapolis , in Purnell's office at the Embarcadero in San Francisco and gave McVay his orders: You will sail at high speed to Tinian where your cargo will be taken off by others. You will not be told what the cargo is, but it is to be guarded even after
1002-448: A VT fuze. It exploded close to the aircraft, which crashed into the sea. To preserve the secrecy of the weapon, its use was initially permitted only over water, where a dud round could not fall into enemy hands. In late 1943, the Army obtained permission for it to be used over land. It proved particularly effective against the V-1 flying bomb over England, and later Antwerp in 1944. The use of
1169-623: A batch of fifty proximity fuzes from the pilot production plant had been test fired, and 26 of them had exploded correctly. Blandy therefore ordered full-scale production to begin. In April 1942, Bush, now the Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), placed the project directly under OSRD. The research effort remained under Tuve but moved to the Johns Hopkins University 's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), where Parsons
1336-499: A cooling relief from the scorching great plains heat. Fall is usually warm and pleasant, but can be cold late in the season. Snow is possible generally from late October to March. The record low in Roswell is −24 °F (−31 °C) on January 11, 1962, and February 8, 1933. The record high is 114 °F (46 °C) on June 27, 1994. As of the 2020 census , there were 48,422 people, 17,929 households, and 11,844 families residing in
1503-707: A fission bomb was theoretically possible. The properties of pure uranium-235 were relatively unknown, as were those of plutonium, which had only been isolated by Glenn Seaborg and his team in February 1941. The scientists at the July 1942 conference envisioned creating plutonium in nuclear reactors where uranium-238 atoms absorbed neutrons that had been emitted from fissioning uranium-235. At this point no reactor had been built, and only tiny quantities of plutonium were available from cyclotrons . Even by December 1943, only two milligrams had been produced. There were many ways of arranging
1670-649: A keen interest in the construction of the Central School at Los Alamos, and became president of the school board. Instead of the temporary two-story structure that Groves had envisioned in the interest of economy and not misusing the project's high priorities for labor and materials, Parsons had a well-built, modern, single-story school constructed. On seeing the result, Groves said: "I'll hold you personally responsible for this, Parsons." Oppenheimer had already recruited key people for Parsons's Ordnance Division. Edwin McMillan
1837-856: A liaison office in Washington, D.C., but established his temporary headquarters at 270 Broadway in New York, where he could draw on administrative support from the Corps of Engineers' North Atlantic Division . It was close to the Manhattan office of Stone & Webster , the principal project contractor, and to Columbia University. He had permission to draw on his former command, the Syracuse District, for staff, and he started with Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Nichols , who became his deputy. Because most of his task involved construction, Marshall worked in cooperation with
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#17328510704352004-477: A meeting called by Stimson, which established a Military Policy Committee, responsible to the Top Policy Group, consisting of Bush (with Conant as an alternate), Styer and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell . Tolman and Conant were later appointed as Groves' scientific advisers. On 19 September, Groves went to Donald Nelson , the chairman of the War Production Board, and asked for broad authority to issue
2171-469: A minor-league record 72 home runs for the 1954 Roswell Rockets. Overall, Bauman hit .400 with 72 home runs and 224 RBI, 150 walks and 188 runs in the 1954 season. Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Willie Stargell played for the 1959 Roswell Pirates. Roswell was an affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1959. Roswell is home to Leprino Foods , one of the world's largest mozzarella factories. It
2338-472: A new attack on the implosion design. Kistiakowsky clashed with both Parsons and Neddermeyer, but felt that "my disagreements with Deak Parsons were very minor compared to my disagreements with Neddermeyer." The implosion design acquired a new urgency in April 1944, when studies of reactor-produced plutonium confirmed that it could not be used in a gun-type weapon. An accelerated effort was called for to design and build
2505-419: A new concept. Shooting down an aircraft with an anti-aircraft gun was a difficult proposition. As a shell had to hit a speeding aircraft at an uncertain altitude, the only hope seemed to be to fill the sky with ammunition. A direct hit was not actually required; an aircraft might be destroyed or critically damaged by a shell detonating nearby. With this in mind, anti-aircraft gunners used time fuzes to increase
2672-457: A new position of Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Special Weapons, which was given to Vice Admiral Blandy. Parsons became Blandy's assistant. In turn, Parsons had two assistants of his own, Ashworth and Horacio Rivero Jr. He also brought Greenbacker from Los Alamos to help set up the new office. Parsons was a strong supporter of research into the use of nuclear power for warship propulsion, but disagreed with Rear Admiral Harold G. Bowen Sr. ,
2839-572: A plant, much less four of them for $ 90 million." A single TNT plant that Nichols had recently built in Pennsylvania had cost $ 128 million. Nor were they impressed with estimates to the nearest order of magnitude, which Groves compared with telling a caterer to prepare for between ten and a thousand guests. A survey team from Stone & Webster had already scouted a site for the production plants. The War Production Board recommended sites around Knoxville, Tennessee , an isolated area where
3006-499: A possible source of bombs with a destructiveness vastly greater than anything now known." In February 1940, the U.S. Navy awarded Columbia University $ 6,000, most of which Fermi and Szilard spent on graphite . A team of Columbia professors including Fermi, Szilard, Eugene T. Booth and John Dunning created the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas, verifying the work of Hahn and Strassmann. The same team subsequently built
3173-470: A ranch. On 16 November 1942, Oppenheimer, Groves, Dudley and others toured the vicinity of the Los Alamos Ranch School . Oppenheimer expressed a strong preference for the site, citing its natural beauty, which, it was hoped, would inspire those working on the project. The engineers were concerned about the poor access road, and whether the water supply would be adequate, but otherwise felt that it
3340-462: A reaction becomes self-sustaining became known as "going critical". Compton reported the success to Conant in Washington, D.C., by a coded phone call, saying, "The Italian navigator [Fermi] has just landed in the new world." In January 1943, Grafton's successor, Major Arthur V. Peterson , ordered Chicago Pile-1 dismantled and reassembled at the Argonne Forest site, as he regarded the operation of
3507-598: A reactor as too hazardous for a densely populated area. The new site, still operated by the Metallurgical Laboratory, became known as ' Site A '. Chicago Pile-3 , the first heavy water reactor, also went critical at this site, on 15 May 1944. After the war, operations at Site A were moved about 6 miles (9.7 km) to DuPage County , the current location of the Argonne National Laboratory . By December 1942 there were concerns that even Oak Ridge
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#17328510704353674-612: A series of prototype nuclear reactors (or "piles" as Fermi called them) in Pupin Hall at Columbia but were not yet able to achieve a chain reaction. The Advisory Committee on Uranium became the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) on Uranium when that organization was formed on 27 June 1940. On 28 June 1941, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8807, which created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), under director Vannevar Bush . The office
3841-533: A simpler gun-type design called Little Boy was developed that used uranium-235 . Three methods were employed for uranium enrichment : electromagnetic , gaseous , and thermal . In parallel with the work on uranium was an effort to produce plutonium. After the feasibility of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1 , was demonstrated in 1942 at the Metallurgical Laboratory in
4008-575: A special account not subject to the usual auditing and controls was used to hold Trust monies. Between 1944 and his resignation from the Trust in 1947, Groves deposited a total of $ 37.5 million. Groves appreciated the early British atomic research and the British scientists' contributions to the Manhattan Project but stated that the United States would have succeeded without them, although not in time for
4175-456: A success of the operation, which he described as "the largest laboratory experiment in history". In addition to the 95 target ships , there was a support fleet of more than 150 ships, 156 aircraft, and over 42,000 personnel. Parsons witnessed the first explosion, Able, from the deck of the task force flagship, the command ship USS Mount McKinley . An airburst like the Hiroshima blast, it
4342-599: A third that of Thin Man. A corresponding reduction in the barrel length reduced the bomb's overall length to 6 feet (1.8 m). In turn, this made it much easier to handle, and permitted a conventional bomb shape, resulting in a more predictable flight. The main concerns with Little Boy were its safety and reliability. The delivery program, codenamed Project Alberta , got underway under Ramsey's direction in October 1943. Starting in November,
4509-622: A version fired from howitzers against ground targets was authorized in response to the German Ardennes Offensive in December 1944, with deadly effect. By the end of 1944, VT fuzes were coming off the production lines at the rate of 40,000 per day. Parsons returned to Dahlgren in March 1943. Around this time, a research laboratory was established at Los Alamos , New Mexico, under the direction of J. Robert Oppenheimer as Project Y , which
4676-411: A wide acquaintance and an excellent reputation among military ordnance people and an ability to gain their support; a reasonably broad background in scientific development; and an ability to attract and hold the respect of scientists." He said that a military officer would be his ideal, as the job might involve planning and coordinating the use of the bomb, but added that he knew of no Army officer who fit
4843-532: Is a city in and the seat of Chaves County , New Mexico , United States. The population was 48,422 at the 2020 census , making it the fifth-most populous city in New Mexico. It is home of the New Mexico Military Institute (NMMI), founded in 1891. The city is also the location of an Eastern New Mexico University campus. Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located a few miles northeast of
5010-509: Is also the location of several manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum related facilities. Roswell has a history of minor league baseball . This regional pride has resulted in Roswell receiving the All-America City Award multiple times, in 1978–79 and 2002. The first non-indigenous settlers of the area around Roswell were a group of pioneers from Missouri , who attempted to start a settlement 15 miles (24 km) southwest of what
5177-589: Is also the location of the former Transportation Manufacturing Corporation factory, best known for producing various iterations of the RTS city bus since 1987. The factory was operated by Nova Bus from 1994 to 2003 and subsequently by Millennium Transit Services . Roswell's tourism industry is based on aerospace engineering and ufology museums and businesses, as well as alien -themed and spacecraft -themed iconography. A yearly UFO festival has been held since 1995. The Roswell Museum maintains an exhibit that includes
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5344-496: Is based on ufology museums and businesses, as well as alien -themed and spacecraft -themed iconography. The city also relies on New Mexico and Americana related tourism including the International UFO Museum and Research Center . Local American folk and New Mexico music performances occur near Pioneer Plaza and in parks around the city. It is a center for acequia -like irrigated farming, dairying, and ranching; it
5511-475: Is likely to be started." In Serber's account, Oppenheimer mentioned the possibility of this scenario to Arthur Compton , who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" and was "never laid to rest". The Chief of Engineers , Major General Eugene Reybold , selected Colonel James C. Marshall to head the Army's part of the project in June 1942. Marshall created
5678-517: Is mild and usually warm, but can still be cold on occasion. Summers are very hot (as is common with the High Plains of New Mexico and Colorado ) and averages around 30 days per year when the temperature rises above 100 °F (38 °C), which can be unpleasant. The North American monsoon occurs during the summer, and can bring torrential downpours, severe thunderstorms (with high winds and hail ) and sometimes even tornadoes . The rain can provide
5845-505: Is now Roswell in 1865, but were forced to abandon the site because of a lack of water. It was called Missouri Plaza. It also had many Hispanic people from Lincoln, New Mexico . John Chisum had his famous Jingle Bob Ranch about 5 miles (8 km) from the center of Roswell, at South Spring Acres. At the time, it was the largest ranch in the United States. Van C. Smith, a businessman from Omaha, Nebraska , and his partner, Aaron Wilburn, constructed two adobe buildings in 1869 that began what
6012-509: Is now Roswell. The two buildings became the settlement's general store, post office, and sleeping quarters for paying guests. In 1871, Smith filed a claim with the federal government for the land around the buildings, and on August 20, 1873, he became the town's first postmaster . Smith was the son of Roswell Smith, a prominent lawyer in Lafayette, Indiana , and Annie Ellsworth, daughter of U.S. Patent Commissioner Henry Leavitt Ellsworth . He called
6179-640: The Army Air Forces Materiel Command at Wright Field , Ohio, began Silverplate , the codename for the modification of B-29s to carry the bombs. Parsons arranged for a test program at Dahlgren using scale models of Thin Man and Fat Man. Test drops were carried out at Muroc Army Air Field , California, and the Naval Ordnance Test Station at Inyokern , California, using full-size replicas of Fat Man known as pumpkin bombs . The ungainly and non-aerodynamic shape of Fat Man proved to be
6346-737: The Belgian Government in Exile was in London. Britain agreed to give the United States most of the Belgian ore, as it could not use most of the supply without restricted American research. In 1944, the Trust purchased 3,440,000 pounds (1,560,000 kg) of uranium oxide ore from companies operating mines in the Belgian Congo. To avoid briefing US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. ,
6513-561: The Carnegie Institution of Washington and later the Naval Research Laboratory . Murphree also headed an unsuccessful separation project using gas centrifuges . Meanwhile, there were two lines of investigation into nuclear reactor technology : Harold Urey researched heavy water at Columbia, while Arthur Compton organized the Metallurgical Laboratory in early 1942 to study plutonium and reactors using graphite as
6680-526: The Chief of Staff of the Army , General George C. Marshall . Roosevelt chose the Army to run the project rather than the Navy, because the Army had more experience with managing large-scale construction. He agreed to coordinate the effort with the British and on 11 October sent a message to Prime Minister Winston Churchill , suggesting that they correspond on atomic matters. The S-1 Committee meeting on 18 December 1941
6847-562: The Clinton Engineer Works (CEW) in early 1943. While Stone & Webster concentrated on the production facilities, the architectural and engineering firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill developed a residential community for 13,000. The community was located on the slopes of Black Oak Ridge, from which the new town of Oak Ridge got its name. The Army presence at Oak Ridge increased in August 1943 when Nichols replaced Marshall as head of
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7014-637: The German Air Force . Roswell was a location of military importance from 1941 to 1967. In 1967, the Walker Air Force Base was decommissioned. After the closure of the base, Roswell capitalized on its pleasant climate and reinvented itself as a retirement community . Roswell has benefited from interest in the alleged UFO incident of 1947 . It was the report of an object that crashed in the general vicinity in June or July 1947, allegedly an extraterrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants. Since
7181-584: The Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Virginia . In July 1933, Parsons became liaison officer between the Bureau of Ordnance and the Naval Research Laboratory . He became interested in radar and was one of the first to recognize its potential to locate ships and aircraft, and perhaps even track shells in flight. In September 1940, Parsons and Merle Tuve of the National Defense Research Committee began work on
7348-795: The Pecos League of professional baseball clubs. The Invaders wear lime-green uniforms to represent the city's extraterrestrial connections. Home games are played at the Joe Bauman Ballpark . Previously, Roswell was home to the Roswell Giants (1923), Roswell Sunshiners (1937), Roswell Rockets (1949–1956), and Roswell Pirates (1959), who played in the Panhandle-Pecos Valley League (1923), West Texas-New Mexico League (1937), Longhorn League (1949–1955), Southwestern League (1956), and Sophomore League (1959). Joe Bauman hit
7515-577: The Solomon Islands in January 1943. In June 1943, Parsons joined the Manhattan Project as Associate Director at the Project Y research laboratory at Los Alamos, New Mexico , under J. Robert Oppenheimer . Parsons became responsible for the ordnance aspects of the project, including the design and testing of the non-nuclear components of nuclear weapons . In a reorganization in 1944, he lost responsibility for
7682-594: The Tennessee Valley Authority could supply ample electric power and the rivers could provide cooling water for the reactors. After examining several sites, the survey team selected one near Elza, Tennessee . Conant advised that it be acquired at once and Styer agreed but Marshall temporized, awaiting the results of Conant's reactor experiments. Of the prospective processes, only Lawrence's electromagnetic separation appeared sufficiently advanced for construction to commence. Marshall and Nichols began assembling
7849-603: The Texas , bringing Cluverius with him as his chief of staff. This was awkward for Parsons, his son-in-law, but Cluverius understood, being himself the son-in-law of an admiral, in his case, Admiral William T. Sampson . In July 1933, Parsons became liaison officer between the Bureau of Ordnance and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. At the NRL he was briefed by the head of its Radio Division, A. Hoyt Taylor , who told him about experiments that had been carried out into what
8016-722: The United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 29.776 square miles (77.12 km ), of which, 29.716 square miles (76.96 km ) is land and 0.060 square miles (0.16 km ), or 0.18%, is water. Roswell is located in both the High Plains and the Chihuahuan Desert and has four very distinct seasons, giving it a cold semi-arid climate ( BSk ) according to the Köppen climate classification . Winters are cool, but usually sunny, and snowfall can occur. Spring
8183-484: The United States Naval Academy exam for one of the appointments by Senator Andrieus A. Jones . He was only an alternate, but passed the exam while more favored candidates did not, and received the appointment. As he was only 16, two years younger than most candidates, he was shorter and lighter than the physical standards called for, but managed to convince the examining board to admit him anyway. He entered
8350-478: The University of Birmingham had made a breakthrough investigating the critical mass of uranium-235 in June 1939. Their calculations indicated that it was within an order of magnitude of 10 kilograms (22 lb), small enough to be carried by contemporary bombers. Their March 1940 Frisch–Peierls memorandum initiated the British atomic bomb project and its MAUD Committee , which unanimously recommended pursuing
8517-903: The University of Chicago , the project designed the X-10 Graphite Reactor and the production reactors at the Hanford Site , in which uranium was irradiated and transmuted into plutonium. The Fat Man plutonium implosion-type weapon was developed in a concerted design and development effort by the Los Alamos Laboratory. The project was also charged with gathering intelligence on the German nuclear weapon project . Through Operation Alsos , Manhattan Project personnel served in Europe, sometimes behind enemy lines, where they gathered nuclear materials and documents, and rounded up German scientists. Despite
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#17328510704358684-428: The battleship USS Idaho , where he was placed in charge of one of the 14-inch gun turrets. In May 1927, Parsons, now a lieutenant (junior grade) , returned to Annapolis, where he commenced a course in ordnance at the Naval Postgraduate School . He became friends with Lieutenant Jack Crenshaw, a fellow officer attending the same training course. Jack asked Parsons to be best man at his wedding to Betty Cluverius,
8851-723: The record-breaking skydive by Felix Baumgartner on October 14, 2012. Roswell is located in the High Great Plains of southeastern New Mexico , approximately 7 mi (11 km) west of the Pecos River and some 40 mi (64 km) east of highlands that rise to the Sierra Blanca range. U.S. Routes 70 , 285 and 380 intersect in the city. US 70 leads northeast 111 mi (179 km) to Clovis and 117 mi (188 km) west to Alamogordo ; US 285 leads north 192 mi (309 km) to Santa Fe and south 76 mi (122 km) to Carlsbad ; and US 380 leads east 134 mi (216 km) to Brownfield, Texas , and west 164 mi (264 km) to Socorro . According to
9018-604: The Army allowed the crops to be harvested, but this was not always possible. The land acquisition process dragged on and was not completed before the end of the Manhattan Project in December 1946. The dispute did not delay work. Although progress on the reactor design at Metallurgical Laboratory and DuPont was not sufficiently advanced to accurately predict the scope of the project, a start was made in April 1943 on facilities for an estimated 25,000 workers, half of whom were expected to live on-site. By July 1944, some 1,200 buildings had been erected and nearly 51,000 people were living in
9185-540: The Army's component the Manhattan District; Reybold officially created this district on 13 August. Informally, it was known as the Manhattan Engineer District, or MED. Unlike other districts, it had no geographic boundaries, and Marshall had the authority of a division engineer. Development of Substitute Materials remained as the official codename of the project as a whole but was supplanted over time by "Manhattan". Marshall later conceded that, "I had never heard of atomic fission but I did know that you could not build much of
9352-502: The August 1945 bombing of Hiroshima. The British wartime participation was crucial to the success of the United Kingdom's independent nuclear weapons program after the war when the McMahon Act of 1946 temporarily ended American nuclear cooperation. The day after he took over the project, Groves went to Tennessee with Colonel Marshall to inspect the proposed site there, and Groves was impressed. On 29 September 1942, United States Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson authorized
9519-566: The Australian physicist Mark Oliphant , flew to the US in late August 1941 and discovered that data provided by the MAUD Committee had not reached key American physicists. Oliphant set out to find out why the committee's findings were apparently being ignored. He met with the Uranium Committee and visited Berkeley, California , where he spoke persuasively to Ernest O. Lawrence . Lawrence was sufficiently impressed to commence his own research into uranium. He in turn spoke to James B. Conant , Arthur H. Compton and George B. Pegram . Oliphant's mission
9686-513: The British Telecommunications Research Establishment but there were numerous technical difficulties with this. The radar set had to be made small enough to fit inside a shell, and its glass vacuum tubes had to first withstand the 20,000 g force of being fired from a gun, and then 500 rotations per second in flight. A special Section T of NDRC was created, chaired by Tuve, with Parsons as special assistant to Bush and liaison between NDRC and BuOrd. On 29 January 1942, Parsons reported to Blandy that
9853-609: The Corps of Engineers to acquire 56,000 acres (23,000 ha) of land by eminent domain at a cost of $ 3.5 million. An additional 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) was subsequently acquired. About 1,000 families were affected by the order, which came into effect on 7 October. Protests, legal appeals, and a 1943 Congressional inquiry were to no avail. By mid-November U.S. Marshals were posting notices to vacate on farmhouse doors, and construction contractors were moving in. Some families were given two weeks' notice to vacate farms that had been their homes for generations. The ultimate cost of
10020-429: The Instrumentation Group. Parsons recruited Robert Brode from the proximity fuze project to become head of the Fuze Development Group. Joseph Hirschfelder was brought in as an expert on internal ballistics , and headed the Interior Ballistics Group. From the beginning, Parsons wanted Norman Ramsey as the head of the delivery group. Edward L. Bowles, the scientific adviser to the Secretary of War , Henry L. Stimson ,
10187-531: The Manhattan Engineer District. One of his first tasks was to move the district headquarters to Oak Ridge, although the name of the district did not change. In September 1943 the administration of community facilities was outsourced to Turner Construction Company through a subsidiary, the Roane-Anderson Company. Chemical engineers were part of "frantic efforts" to make 10% to 12% enriched uranium 235, with tight security and fast approvals for supplies and materials. The population of Oak Ridge soon expanded well beyond
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#173285107043510354-671: The Manhattan Project conducted weapons testing at Bikini Atoll as part of Operation Crossroads , developed new weapons, promoted the development of the network of national laboratories , supported medical research into radiology and laid the foundations for the nuclear navy . It maintained control over American atomic weapons research and production until the formation of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in January 1947. The discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, and its theoretical explanation by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch , made an atomic bomb theoretically possible. There were fears that
10521-411: The Manhattan Project's emphasis on security, Soviet atomic spies penetrated the program. The first nuclear device ever detonated was an implosion-type bomb during the Trinity test , conducted at White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico on 16 July 1945. Little Boy and Fat Man bombs were used a month later in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , respectively. In the immediate postwar years,
10688-444: The Manhattan Project's medical advisor, had predicted. The target ships proved impossible to decontaminate and, lacking targets, the test series had to be called off. For his part in Operation Crossroads, Parsons was awarded the Legion of Merit . The Special Weapons Office was abolished in November 1946, and the Manhattan Project followed suit at the end of the year. A civilian agency, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC),
10855-403: The Metallurgical Laboratory, was assigned to assist Oppenheimer by 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 nuclear chain reaction—and hydrodynamics —how the explosion produced by a chain reaction might behave. To review this work and
11022-403: The Naval Academy at Annapolis , Maryland, in 1918, and eventually graduated 48th out of 539 in the class of 1922, in which Hyman G. Rickover graduated 107th. At the time, it was customary for midshipmen to acquire nicknames, and Parsons was called "Deacon", a play on his last name. This became shortened to "Deak". On graduating in June 1922, Parsons was commissioned as an ensign and posted to
11189-425: The Navy would later name radar . Parsons immediately recognized the potential of the new invention to locate ships and aircraft, and perhaps even track shells in flight. For this, he realized that he was going to need high frequency microwaves . He discovered that no one had attempted this. The scientists had not considered all the applications of the technology, and the Navy bureaus had not grasped their potential. He
11356-799: The Parsons family especially enjoyed visiting their former neighbors at their new home at Olden Manor, a 17th-century estate with a cook and groundskeeper , surrounded by 265 acres (107 ha) of woodlands at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton , New Jersey. Parsons was disturbed by the rise of McCarthyism in the early 1950s. In 1953 he wrote a letter to Oppenheimer expressing his hope that "the anti-intellectualism of recent months may have passed its peak". On 4 December that year, Parsons heard of President Dwight Eisenhower 's "blank wall" directive, blocking Oppenheimer from access to classified material. Parsons became visibly upset, and that night began experiencing severe chest pains. The next morning, he went to Bethesda Naval Hospital , where he died while
11523-411: The President, who approved it by writing "OK FDR" on the document. Compton asked theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer of the University of California to take over research into fast neutron calculations —key to calculations of critical mass and weapon detonation—from Gregory Breit , who had quit on 18 May 1942 because of concerns over lax operational security. John H. Manley , a physicist at
11690-602: The Quebec Agreement, the Americans' progress and expenditures amazed the British. Chadwick pressed for British involvement in the Manhattan Project to the fullest extent and abandoned hopes of an independent British project during the war. With Churchill's backing, he attempted to ensure that every request from Groves for assistance was honored. The British Mission that arrived in the United States in December 1943 included Niels Bohr , Otto Frisch, Klaus Fuchs , Rudolf Peierls, and Ernest Titterton . More scientists arrived in early 1944. While those assigned to gaseous diffusion left by
11857-434: The South Pacific. Parsons flew there himself, where he met with Admiral William F. Halsey at his headquarters in Nouméa . He arranged for Parsons to take VT fuzes out with him on the cruiser USS Helena . On 6 January 1943, Helena was part of a cruiser force that bombarded Munda in the Solomon Islands . On the return trip, the cruisers were attacked by four Aichi D3A (Val) dive bombers. Helena fired at one with
12024-475: The academic scientists working on the project. Groves' orders placed him directly under Somervell rather than Reybold, with Colonel Marshall now answerable to Groves. Groves established his headquarters in Washington, D.C., in the New War Department Building , where Colonel Marshall had his liaison office. He assumed command of the Manhattan Project on 23 September 1942. Later that day, he attended
12191-400: The age of 18, 6.6% were under 5 years of age, and 15.2% were 65 and older. The median income for a household in the city was $ 48,298, and per capita income was $ 25,906 (2018–2022 in 2022 dollars). In 2022, 23.2% of the population were living below the poverty line. As of the 2010 census , there were 48,366 people, 17,654 households, and _ families residing in the city. The population density
12358-556: The area's first major growth and development spurt. The growth continued when the Pecos Valley Railroad arrived in 1892. During World War II, a prisoner-of-war camp was located in nearby Orchard Park . The German prisoners of war were used to do major infrastructure work in Roswell, such as paving the banks of the North Spring River . Some POWs used rocks of different sizes to create the outline of an iron cross among
12525-454: The bill. Bush then suggested Parsons, a nomination supported by Purnell. The next morning, Parsons received a phone call from Purnell, ordering him to report to Admiral King, who was now the commander in chief, US Fleet (Cominch). In a terse ten-minute meeting, King briefed Parsons on the Project, which he said had his full backing. That afternoon, Parsons met with Groves, who quickly sized him up as
12692-715: The bomb design team at Los Alamos needed them, despite the risk of revealing weapon design secrets. In August 1943 Churchill and Roosevelt negotiated the Quebec Agreement , which established the Combined Policy Committee to coordinate the efforts of the US and UK; Canada was not a signatory, but the Agreement provided for a Canadian representative on the Combined Policy Committee in view of Canada's contribution to
12859-515: The bomb in flight. While the aircraft was en route to Hiroshima, Parsons climbed into the cramped and dark bomb bay, and inserted the powder charge and detonator. He was awarded the Silver Star for his part in the mission. A 1922 graduate of the United States Naval Academy , Parsons served on a variety of warships beginning with the battleship USS Idaho . He was trained in ordnance and studied ballistics under L. T. E. Thompson at
13026-683: The branch office in Santa Fe, where she met new arrivals and issue them with passes. An Army-OSRD council on 25 June 1942 decided to build a pilot plant for plutonium production in the Argonne Forest preserve , southwest of Chicago. In July, Nichols arranged for a lease of 1,025 acres (415 ha) from the Cook County Forest Preserve District , and Captain James F. Grafton was appointed Chicago area engineer. It soon became apparent that
13193-509: The city on the Pecos River . Bottomless Lakes State Park is located 12 miles (19 km) east of Roswell on US 380 . Chaves County forms the entirety of the Roswell micropolitan area . The Roswell incident was named after the town, though the crash site of the alleged UFO was some 75 miles (121 km) from Roswell and closer to Corona . The investigation and debris recovery was handled by
13360-414: The city. The population density was 1,629.5 inhabitants per square mile (629.2/km ). There were 20,220 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 54.8% White , 2.2% African American , 1.5% Native American , 1.2% Asian , 0.1% Pacific Islander , 20.9% from some other races and 19.2% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 58.8% of the population. 26.0% of residents were under
13527-402: The construction camp. As area engineer, Matthias exercised overall control of the site. At its peak, the construction camp was the third most populous town in Washington state. Hanford operated a fleet of over 900 buses, more than the city of Chicago. Like Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, Richland was a gated community with restricted access, but it looked more like a typical wartime American boomtown:
13694-525: The daughter of the commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard , Rear Admiral Wat Tyler Cluverius Jr. , at the Norfolk Navy Chapel. As best man, Parsons was paired with Betty's maid of honor, her sister Martha. Parsons and Martha got along well, and in November 1929, they too were married at the Norfolk Navy Chapel. This time, Jack and Betty Crenshaw were best man and maid of honor. The ordnance course
13861-471: The deuterium concentration in the water from 2.3% to 99.8%. For this process, Hugh Taylor of Princeton developed a platinum-on-carbon catalyst for the first three stages while Urey developed a nickel- chromia one for the fourth stage tower. The final cost was $ 2.8 million. The Canadian Government did not officially learn of the project until August 1942. Trail's heavy water production started in January 1944 and continued until 1956. Heavy water from Trail
14028-439: The development and progress of the Navy or Marine Corps." The Forrest Sherman -class destroyer USS Parsons was named in his honor. Her keel was laid down by Ingalls Shipbuilding of Pascagoula , Mississippi, on 17 June 1957, and was launched by his widow Martha on 17 August 1958. When it was rechristened as a guided missile destroyer (DDG-33) in 1967, Clare, now a naval officer herself, represented her family. Parsons
14195-597: The development of an atomic bomb. In July 1940, Britain had offered to give the United States access to its research, and the Tizard Mission 's John Cockcroft briefed American scientists on British developments. He discovered that the American project was smaller than the British, and not as advanced. As part of the scientific exchange, the MAUD Committee's findings were conveyed to the United States. One of its members,
14362-511: The development of the proximity fuze , an invention that was provided to the US by the UK Tizard Mission , a radar-triggered fuze that would explode a shell in the proximity of the target. The fuze, eventually known as the VT (variable time) fuze, Mark 32, went into production in 1942. Parsons was on hand to watch the cruiser USS Helena shoot down the first enemy aircraft with a VT fuze in
14529-528: The doctors were still examining him. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery alongside his daughter Hannah. He was survived by his father, brother, half-brother and sister, as well as his wife Martha and daughters Peggy and Clare. The Rear Admiral William S. Parsons Award for Scientific and Technical Progress was established by the Navy in his memory. It is awarded "to a Navy or Marine Corps officer, enlisted person, or civilian who has made an outstanding contribution in any field of science that has furthered
14696-482: The efficiency of the bomb as it exploded. As the idea of the fission bomb was theoretically settled—at least until more experimental data was available—Edward Teller pushed for discussion of a more powerful bomb: the "super", now usually referred to as a " hydrogen bomb ", which would use the force of a detonating fission bomb to ignite a nuclear fusion reaction in deuterium and tritium . Teller proposed scheme after scheme, but Bethe refused each one. The fusion idea
14863-603: The effort. An agreement between Roosevelt and Churchill known as the Hyde Park Aide-Mémoire , signed in late September 1944, extended the Quebec Agreement to the postwar period and suggested that "when a 'bomb' is finally available, it might perhaps, after mature consideration, be used against the Japanese, who should be warned that this bombardment will be repeated until they surrender". When cooperation resumed after
15030-428: The evaluation of Able simultaneously with the preparations for Baker. This time he assisted with the final preparations on USS LSM-60 before heading back to seaplane tender USS Cumberland Sound for the test. The underwater Baker explosion was no larger than Able, but the dome and water column made it look far more spectacular. The real problem was the radioactive fallout, as Colonel Stafford L. Warren ,
15197-418: The fall of 1944, the thirty-five working under Oliphant with Lawrence at Berkeley were assigned to existing laboratory groups and most stayed until the end of the war. The nineteen sent to Los Alamos also joined existing groups, primarily related to implosion and bomb assembly, but not the plutonium-related ones. The Quebec Agreement specified that nuclear weapons would not be used against another country without
15364-485: The first Canadian reactor, and the first to be completed outside the United States, when it went critical in September 1945; ZEEP remained in use by researchers until 1970. A larger 10 MW NRX reactor, which was designed during the war, was completed and went critical in July 1947. The Eldorado Mine at Port Radium was a source of uranium ore. Roswell, New Mexico Roswell ( / ˈ r ɒ z w ɛ l / )
15531-422: The fissile material into a critical mass. The simplest was shooting a "cylindrical plug" into a sphere of "active material" with a "tamper"—dense material to focus neutrons inward and keep the reacting mass together to increase its efficiency. They also explored designs involving spheroids , a primitive form of " implosion " suggested by Richard C. Tolman , and the possibility of autocatalytic methods to increase
15698-499: The foundations for a nuclear-powered navy . On 11 January 1946, Blandy was appointed to command Joint Task Force One (JTF-1), a special force created to conduct a series of nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll , which he named Operation Crossroads , to determine the effect of nuclear weapons on warships. Parsons, who was promoted to the rank of rear admiral on 8 January 1946, became Blandy's Deputy Commander for Technical Direction and Commander Task Group 1.1. Parsons worked hard to make
15865-517: The general theory of fission reactions, Oppenheimer and Fermi convened meetings at the University of Chicago in June and at the University of California in July 1942 with theoretical physicists Hans Bethe , John Van Vleck , Edward Teller, Emil Konopinski , Robert Serber, Stan Frankel , and Eldred C. (Carlyle) Nelson, and experimental physicists Emilio Segrè , Felix Bloch , Franco Rasetti , Manley, and Edwin McMillan . They tentatively confirmed that
16032-427: The gun-type plutonium weapon, codenamed Thin Man . It was assumed that a uranium-235 weapon would be similar in nature. Hirschfelder's group considered various designs, and evaluated different propellants. The ordnance test area, which became known as "Anchor Ranch", was established on a nearby ranch, where Parsons conducted test firings with a 3-inch anti-aircraft gun. Work on implosion lagged by comparison, but this
16199-449: The head of the Office of Research and Inventions , who wanted the US Navy to initiate its own nuclear project. Parsons felt that the Navy should work with the Manhattan Project, and arranged for Navy officers to be assigned to Oak Ridge. The most senior of them was his former classmate Rickover, who became assistant director there. They immersed themselves in the study of nuclear energy, laying
16366-401: The head of the Corps of Engineers Construction Division, Major General Thomas M. Robbins , and his deputy, Colonel Leslie Groves . Reybold, Somervell, and Styer decided to call the project "Development of Substitute Materials", but Groves felt that this would draw attention. Since engineer districts normally carried the name of the city where they were located, Marshall and Groves agreed to name
16533-410: The headmaster and staff of the Los Alamos Ranch School . Bathtub Row, so-called because the houses were the only ones at Los Alamos with bathtubs, was the most prestigious address at Los Alamos. Parsons became Oppenheimer's next-door neighbor, and in fact his house was slightly larger, because Parsons had two children and Oppenheimer, at this point, had only one. With two school-age children, Parsons took
16700-411: The highest rating he could assign was AA-3, although he was willing to provide a AAA rating on request for critical materials if the need arose. Nichols and Marshall were disappointed; AA-3 was the same priority as Nichols' TNT plant in Pennsylvania. Vannevar Bush became dissatisfied with Colonel Marshall's failure to get the project moving forward expeditiously and felt that more aggressive leadership
16867-543: The implosion-type fission weapon, but retained that for the design and development of the gun-type fission weapon , which eventually became Little Boy. He was also responsible for the delivery program, codenamed Project Alberta . He watched the Trinity nuclear test from a B-29 . After the war, Parsons was promoted to the rank of rear admiral without ever having commanded a ship. He participated in Operation Crossroads ,
17034-480: The implosion-type weapon, codenamed Fat Man . Two new groups were created at Los Alamos: X (for explosives) Division headed by Kistiakowsky, and G (for gadget) Division under Robert Bacher . Parsons was placed in charge of O (for ordnance) Division, with responsibility for both the gun-type design and delivery. The uranium gun-type weapon known as Little Boy did prove to be simpler than Thin Man. The gun velocity needed to be only 1,000 feet per second (300 m/s),
17201-528: The importance of top priority. Most everything proposed in the Roosevelt administration would have top priority. That would last for about a week or two and then something else would get top priority". One of Groves' early problems was to find a director for Project Y , the group that would design and build the bomb. The obvious choice was one of the three laboratory heads, Urey, Lawrence, or Compton, but they could not be spared. Compton recommended Oppenheimer, who
17368-538: The industrial manufacturing area of Ontario and Quebec, and proximity to a rail head adjacent to a large military base, Camp Petawawa . Located on the Ottawa River, it had access to abundant water. The first director of the new laboratory was Hans von Halban . He was replaced by John Cockcroft in May 1944, who was succeeded by Bennett Lewis in September 1946. A pilot reactor known as ZEEP (zero-energy experimental pile) became
17535-490: The initial plans, and peaked at 75,000 in May 1945, by which time 82,000 people were employed at the Clinton Engineer Works, and 10,000 by Roane-Anderson. The idea of locating Project Y at Oak Ridge was considered, but it was decided that it should be in a remote location. On Oppenheimer's recommendation, the search for a suitable site was narrowed to the vicinity of Albuquerque, New Mexico , where Oppenheimer owned
17702-491: The issues involved in setting up a laboratory in a remote area and should be appointed as its director. Groves personally waived the security requirements and issued Oppenheimer's clearance on 20 July 1943. The British and Americans exchanged nuclear information but did not initially combine their efforts; during 1940-41 the British project ( Tube Alloys ) was larger and more advanced. Britain rebuffed attempts by Bush and Conant in August 1941 to strengthen cooperation because it
17869-519: The land acquisition, which was not completed until March 1945, was only about $ 2.6 million—around $ 47 an acre. When presented with a proclamation declaring Oak Ridge a total exclusion area that no one could enter without military permission, the Governor of Tennessee , Prentice Cooper , angrily tore it up. Initially known as the Kingston Demolition Range, the site was officially renamed
18036-491: The late 1970s, the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of a conspiracy theory regarding a classified program named " Project Mogul ". Many UFO proponents maintain that an alien craft was found and its occupants were captured, and that the military then engaged in a cover-up. In recent times, the business community has deliberately sought out tourists interested in UFOs, science fiction, and aliens. Roswell hosted
18203-419: The life of your vessel. If she goes down, save the cargo at all costs, in a lifeboat if necessary. And every day you save on your voyage will cut the length of the war by just that much. Parsons was in charge of scientists and technicians from Project Alberta on Tinian, who were nominally organized as the 1st Technical Service Detachment. Their role was the handling and maintenance of the nuclear weapons. Parsons
18370-418: The local Roswell Army Air Field . On the 50th anniversary of the Roswell incident, an annual UFO Festival was started. In the 1930s, Roswell was a site for much of Robert H. Goddard 's early rocketry work. The Roswell Museum and Art Center maintains an exhibit that includes a recreation of Goddard's rocket engine development workshop, and Goddard High School is named after him. Roswell's tourism industry
18537-408: The main difficulty, but many other problems were encountered and overcome. Parsons, wrote Oppenheimer, "has been almost alone in this project to appreciate the actual military and engineering problems which we would encounter. He has been almost alone in insisting on facing these problems at a date early enough so that we might arrive at their solution." In July 1944, Parsons joined Jack Crenshaw, who
18704-523: The matter with the Military Policy Committee, the high-level committee that oversaw the Manhattan Project. It consisted of Vannevar Bush as its chairman, Brigadier General Wilhelm D. Styer who represented the Army, and Rear Admiral William R. Purnell as the Navy's representative. Groves told them that he was looking for someone with "a sound understanding of both practical and theoretical ordnance – high explosives, guns and fusing –
18871-552: The military aspects of nuclear weapons. Groves was appointed to command the AFSWP, with Parsons and Air Force Major General Roscoe C. Wilson as his deputies. In this capacity, Parsons pressed for the development of improved nuclear weapons. During the Operation Sandstone series of nuclear weapon tests at Enewetak Atoll in 1948, Parsons once again served as deputy commander. Parsons hoped that his next posting would be to sea, but he
19038-484: The military necessity continues". Wartime land purchases eventually came to 49,383 acres (19,985 ha), but only $ 414,971 was spent. Work commenced in December 1942. Groves initially allocated $ 300,000 for construction, three times Oppenheimer's estimate, but by the time Sundt finished on 30 November 1943, over $ 7 million had been spent. During the war, Los Alamos was referred to as "Site Y" or "the Hill". Initially it
19205-551: The military profile was lower, and physical security elements like high fences and guard dogs were less evident. Canada provided research, extraction and production of uranium and plutonium, and Canadian scientists worked at Los Alamos. Cominco had produced electrolytic hydrogen at Trail, British Columbia , since 1930. Urey suggested in 1941 that it could produce heavy water. To the existing $ 10 million plant consisting of 3,215 cells consuming 75 MW of hydroelectric power, secondary electrolysis cells were added to increase
19372-428: The mission, Parsons repeatedly practiced inserting the powder charge and detonator in the bomb in the poor visibility and cramped conditions of the bomb bay . Parsons participated in the bombing of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945, flying on the Enola Gay as weaponeer and Senior Military Technical Observer. Shortly after takeoff, he clambered into the bomb bay and carefully carried out the procedure that he had rehearsed
19539-505: The mutual consent of the US and UK. In June 1945, Wilson agreed that the nuclear bombing of Japan would be recorded as a decision of the Combined Policy Committee. The Combined Policy Committee created the Combined Development Trust in June 1944, with Groves as its chairman, to procure uranium and thorium ores on international markets. The Belgian Congo and Canada held much of the world's uranium outside Eastern Europe, and
19706-403: The necessary resources. The first step was to obtain a high priority rating for the project. The top ratings were AA-1 through AA-4 in descending order, although there was a special AAA rating reserved for emergencies. Ratings AA-1 and AA-2 were for essential weapons and equipment, so Colonel Lucius D. Clay , the deputy chief of staff at Services and Supply for requirements and resources, felt that
19873-542: The night before. It was Parsons and not Tibbets, the pilot, who was in charge of the mission. He approved the choice of Hiroshima as the target, and gave the final approval for the bomb to be released. For his part in the mission, Parsons was awarded the Silver Star , and was promoted to the wartime rank of commodore on 10 August 1945. For his work on the Manhattan Project, he was awarded the Navy Distinguished Service Medal . In November 1945, King created
20040-553: The nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in 1946, and later the Operation Sandstone tests at Enewetak Atoll in 1948. In 1947, he became deputy commander of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project . He died of a heart attack in 1953. William Sterling Parsons was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 26 November 1901, the oldest of three children of a lawyer, Harry Robert Parsons, and his wife Clara, née Doolittle. Clara
20207-450: The only aircraft in the Navy big enough to carry it was the airship USS Macon . Parsons's marriage produced three daughters. The first, Hannah, was born in 1932; the second, Margaret (Peggy), followed in 1934. Hannah died of polio in April 1935. Parsons returned to sea in June 1936 as the executive officer of the destroyer USS Aylwin . He was promoted to lieutenant commander in May 1937. His third daughter, Clara (Clare),
20374-502: The possibility of damage. The question then arose as to whether radar could be used to create an explosion in the proximity of an aircraft. Tuve's first suggestion was to have an aircraft drop a radar-controlled bomb on a bomber formation. Parsons saw that while this was technically feasible, it was tactically problematic. The ideal solution was a proximity fuze inside an artillery shell as was first conceived by W. A. S. Butement , Edward S. Shire, and Amherst F. H. Thomson, researchers at
20541-493: The research of Enrico Fermi and others into nuclear chain reactions . They had it signed by Albert Einstein and delivered to President Franklin D. Roosevelt . Roosevelt called on Lyman Briggs of the National Bureau of Standards to head an Advisory Committee on Uranium ; Briggs met with Szilard, Wigner and Edward Teller in October 1939. The committee reported back to Roosevelt in November that uranium "would provide
20708-403: The right man for the job. Parsons was relieved of his duties at Dahlgren and officially assigned to Admiral King's Cominch staff on 1 June 1943, with a promotion to the rank of captain. On 15 June 1943, he arrived at Los Alamos as Associate Director. Parsons would be Oppenheimer's second in command. Parsons and his family moved into one of the houses on "Bathtub Row" that had formerly belonged to
20875-437: The runway. Parsons became very concerned. If a B-29 crashed with a Little Boy, the fire could cook off the explosive and detonate the weapon, with catastrophic consequences. He raised the possibility of arming the bomb in flight with Farrell, who agreed that it might be a good idea. Farrell asked Parsons if he knew how to perform this task. "No sir, I don't", Parsons conceded, "but I've got all afternoon to learn." The night before
21042-517: The scale of operations was too great for the area, and it was decided to build the pilot plant at Oak Ridge and keep a research and testing facility in Chicago. Delays in establishing the plant at Argonne led Arthur Compton to authorize the Metallurgical Laboratory to construct the first nuclear reactor beneath the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago. The reactor required an enormous amount of highly purified graphite blocks and uranium in both metallic and powdered oxide forms. At
21209-528: The site be located far from the existing uranium production facility at Oak Ridge. In December 1942, Groves dispatched Colonel Franklin Matthias and DuPont engineers to scout potential sites. Matthias reported that Hanford Site near Richland, Washington , was "ideal in virtually all respects". It was isolated and near the Columbia River , which could supply sufficient water to cool the reactors. Groves visited
21376-598: The site in January and established the Hanford Engineer Works (HEW), codenamed "Site W". Under Secretary Patterson gave his approval on 9 February, allocating $ 5 million for the acquisition of 430,000 acres (170,000 ha). The federal government relocated some 1,500 residents of nearby settlements, as well as the Wanapum and other tribes using the area. A dispute arose with farmers over compensation for crops, which had already been planted. Where schedules allowed,
21543-473: The stones covering the north bank. Later, the iron cross was covered with a thin layer of concrete. In the 1980s, a crew cleaning the river bed cleared off the concrete and revealed the outline once more. The small park just south of the cross was then known as Iron Cross Park. On November 11, 1996, the park was renamed POW/MIA Park. The park displays a piece of the Berlin Wall , presented to the city of Roswell by
21710-528: The time, there was a limited source of pure uranium metal; Frank Spedding of Iowa State University was able to produce only two short tons . Three short tons was supplied by Westinghouse Lamp Plant , produced in a rush with makeshift process. A large square balloon was constructed by Goodyear Tire to encase the reactor. On 2 December 1942, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiated the first artificial self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in an experimental reactor known as Chicago Pile-1 . The point at which
21877-557: The town Roswell, after his father's first name. In 1877, Captain Joseph Calloway Lea and his family bought out Smith and Wilburn's claim and became the owners of most of the land of Roswell and the area surrounding it. The town was relatively quiet during the Lincoln County War (1877–1879). A major aquifer was discovered when merchant Nathan Jaffa had a well drilled in his back yard on Richardson Avenue in 1890, resulting in
22044-438: The two countries were reversed, and in January 1943 Conant notified the British that they would no longer receive atomic information except in certain areas. The British investigated the possibility of an independent nuclear program but determined that it could not be ready in time to impact the war in Europe . By March 1943 Conant decided that James Chadwick and one or two other British scientists were important enough that
22211-569: Was "pervaded by an atmosphere of enthusiasm and urgency" in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States declaration of war on Japan and on Germany . Work was proceeding on three techniques for isotope separation : Lawrence and his team at the University of California investigated electromagnetic separation , Eger Murphree and Jesse Wakefield Beams 's team looked into gaseous diffusion at Columbia University , and Philip Abelson directed research into thermal diffusion at
22378-483: Was 1,619.9 inhabitants per square mile (625.4/km ). There were 19,743 housing units. The racial makeup of the city was 69.9% White , 2.5% African American , 1.2% Native American , 0.7% Asian , 0.1% Pacific Islander , 22.1% from some other races and 3.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 53.4% of the population. 26.5% of residents were under the age of 18, _% were under 5 years of age, and 15.6% were 65 and older. The Roswell Invaders play in
22545-473: Was BuOrd's representative. In August 1942, a live firing test was conducted with the newly commissioned cruiser USS Cleveland . Three pilotless drones were shot down in succession. Parsons had the new proximity fuzes, now known as VT (variable time) fuze, Mark 32, flown to the Mare Island Navy Yard , where they were mated with 5"/38 caliber gun rounds. Some 5,000 of them were then shipped to
22712-519: Was a physicist who headed the Proving Ground Group. His first task was to establish the ordnance test area. Later he became Parsons's deputy for the gun-type fission weapon . Charles Critchfield , a mathematical physicist with ordnance experience at the Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground , was in charge of the Target, Projectile and Source Group. Kenneth Bainbridge arrived in August to take charge of
22879-501: Was able to persuade the scientists to establish a group to investigate microwave radar, but without official sanction it had low priority. Parsons submitted a memorandum on the subject to the Bureau of Ordnance (BuOrd) requesting $ 5,000 per annum for research. To his dismay, the BuOrd and Bureau of Engineering , which was responsible for the NRL, turned down his proposal. Some thought that Parsons
23046-573: Was already intimately familiar with the bomb design concepts. However, Oppenheimer had little administrative experience, and, unlike Urey, Lawrence, and Compton, had not won a Nobel Prize, which many scientists felt that the head of such an important laboratory should have. There were also concerns about Oppenheimer's security status, as many of his associates were communists , including his wife, Kitty ; his girlfriend, Jean Tatlock ; and his brother, Frank . A long conversation in October 1942 convinced Groves and Nichols that Oppenheimer thoroughly understood
23213-442: Was born the same year. On that occasion, Parsons left Martha with the newborn and three-year-old Peggy to care for and reported for duty the next day, believing that his first responsibility was to his ship. His skipper, Commander Earl E. Stone , did not agree, and sent him home. In March 1938, Rear Admiral William R. Sexton had Parsons assigned to his flagship , the cruiser USS Detroit , as gunnery officer. Parsons's task
23380-511: Was created by the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 to take over the functions and assets of the Manhattan Project, including development, production and control of nuclear weapons. The law provided for a Military Liaison Committee (MLC) to advise the AEC on military matters, and Parsons became a member. A joint Army-Navy organization, the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project (AFSWP), was created to handle
23547-529: Was decommissioned on 19 November 1982, stricken from the Navy list on 1 December 1984, and disposed of as a target on 25 April 1989. The Deak Parsons Center, headquarters of Afloat Training Group, Atlantic, in Norfolk, Virginia, was also named for him. Parsons's portrait is among a series of paintings related to Operation Crossroads. His papers are in the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C. Parsons
23714-524: Was depicted in the following films or television works: Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons . It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project was directed by Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers . Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer
23881-562: Was empowered to engage in research and large engineering projects. The NDRC Committee on Uranium became the S-1 Section of the OSRD; the word "uranium" was dropped for security reasons. In July 1941, Briggs proposed spending $ 167,000 on researching uranium, particularly the uranium-235 isotope, and plutonium , which had been isolated for the first time at the University of California in February 1941. In Britain, Frisch and Rudolf Peierls at
24048-485: Was for building and operating the plants that produced the fissile material . Research and production took place at more than 30 sites across the US, the UK, and Canada. The project resulted in two types of atomic bombs, developed concurrently during the war: a relatively simple gun-type fission weapon and a more complex implosion-type nuclear weapon . The Thin Man gun-type design proved impractical to use with plutonium , so
24215-534: Was given responsibility for the NDRC's Armor and Ordnance Division. Tolman met with Parsons and Thompson in July 1940, and discussed their needs. Within the Navy, too, there was a change of attitude, with Captain William H. P. (Spike) Blandy as the head of BuOrd's Research Desk. Blandy welcomed the assistance of NDRC scientists in improving and developing weapons. In September 1940, Parsons and Merle Tuve of NDRC began work on
24382-547: Was ideal. Patterson approved the acquisition of the site on 25 November 1942, authorizing $ 440,000 for the purchase of pre-calculated 54,000 acres (22,000 ha), all but 8,900 acres (3,600 ha) of which were already owned by the Federal Government. Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard granted about 45,000 acres (18,000 ha) of United States Forest Service land to the War Department "for so long as
24549-591: Was instead sent to the Weapons Systems Evaluation Group in 1949. He finally returned to sea duty in 1951, this time as commander, Cruiser Division 6, despite having never commanded a ship. Parsons and his cruisers conducted a tour of the Mediterranean showing the flag . He then became Deputy Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance in March 1952. Parsons remained in contact with Oppenheimer. The two men and their wives visited each other from time to time, and
24716-619: Was investigating the Port Chicago disaster . The two men surveyed the disaster area, where 1,500 tons of munitions had exploded and 320 men had died. A year later, Parsons watched the Trinity nuclear test from a circling B-29. Afterwards, Parsons flew to Tinian , where the B-29s of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets ' 509th Composite Group were preparing to deliver the weapons. En route, he stopped off in San Diego to visit his eighteen-year-old half-brother Bob,
24883-489: Was joined by Purnell, who represented the Military Liaison Committee, and Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell , Groves' Deputy for Operations. They became, informally, the "Tinian Joint Chiefs", with decision-making authority over the nuclear mission. Before Farrell left for Tinian, Groves had told him: "Don't let Parsons get killed. We need him!" In the space of a week on Tinian, four B-29s crashed and burned on
25050-466: Was normally followed by a relevant field posting, so Parsons was sent to the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren , Virginia, to further study ballistics under L. T. E. Thompson . Following the usual pattern of alternating duty afloat and ashore, Parsons was posted to the battleship USS Texas in June 1930, with the rank of lieutenant . In November, the commander in chief United States Fleet , Admiral Jehu V. Chase , hoisted his flag on
25217-551: Was not initially a major concern, because it was expected that the gun-type would work with both uranium and plutonium. However, Oppenheimer, Groves and Parsons lobbied Purnell and Tolman to get John von Neumann to have a look at the problem. Von Neumann suggested the use of shaped charges to initiate implosion. Oppenheimer considered that there was a "reciprocal lack of confidence" between Parsons and Neddermeyer, and in October 1943 he brought in George Kistiakowsky , who began
25384-482: Was part of the Manhattan Project , the top-secret effort to develop an atomic bomb . The creation of a practical weapon would necessarily require an expert in ordnance, and Oppenheimer tentatively penciled in Tolman for the role, but getting him released from OSRD was another matter. Until then, Oppenheimer had to do the job himself. In May 1943, the Manhattan Project's director, Brigadier General Leslie R. Groves , took up
25551-443: Was put aside to concentrate on producing fission bombs. Teller raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere because of a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei. Bethe calculated that it was "extremely unlikely". A postwar report co-authored by Teller concluded that "whatever the temperature to which a section of the atmosphere may be heated, no self-propagating chain of nuclear reactions
25718-519: Was reluctant to part with Ramsey, but gave way under pressure from Groves, Tolman and Bush. Perhaps the most controversial group head would be Seth Neddermeyer , the head of the Implosion Experimentation Group; for the time being, Parsons accorded a relatively low priority to this work. He also recruited Hazel Greenbacker as his secretary. Groves, among others, felt that Parsons had a tendency to fill positions with naval officers. There
25885-408: Was reluctant to share its technological lead and help the United States develop its own atomic bomb. But the British, who had made significant advances in research early in the war, did not have the resources to carry through such a research program into development while a large portion of their economy was engaged in fighting the war; Tube Alloys soon fell behind its American counterpart. The roles of
26052-421: Was required. He spoke to Harvey Bundy and Generals Marshall, Somervell, and Styer about his concerns, advocating that the project be placed under a senior policy committee, with a prestigious officer, preferably Styer, as director. Somervell and Styer selected Groves for the post; General Marshall ordered that he be promoted to brigadier general, as it was felt that the title "general" would hold more sway with
26219-410: Was ruining his career with his advocacy of radar, but he acquired one powerful backer. The Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics (BuAer), Rear Admiral Ernest J. King , supported the use of radar as a means of determining aircraft altitude. When the Bureau of Engineering protested that such a device would necessarily be too large to carry on a plane, King told them that it would still be worthwhile, even if
26386-404: Was some aspect of service parochialism, and Parsons believed that involvement in the Manhattan Project would be important for the future of the Navy, but it was also due to the difficulty of getting highly skilled people from any source in wartime. Parsons simply found it easiest to get them through Navy channels. Lieutenant Commander Norris Bradbury said that he did not wish to join Project Y, but
26553-409: Was soon on his way to Los Alamos anyway. Parsons recruited Commander Francis Birch , who replaced McMillan at Anchor Ranch. Commander Frederick Ashworth was a naval ordnance officer and aviator who was senior aviator at Dahlgren when he was brought in to work on the delivery side. By the end of the war, there were 41 Naval officers at Los Alamos. Over the next few months, Parsons's division designed
26720-810: Was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory that designed the bombs. The Army program was designated the Manhattan District , as its first headquarters were in Manhattan ; the name gradually superseded the official codename, Development of Substitute Materials , for the entire project. The project absorbed its earlier British counterpart, Tube Alloys , and subsumed the program from the American civilian Office of Scientific Research and Development . The Manhattan Project employed nearly 130,000 people at its peak and cost nearly US$ 2 billion (equivalent to about $ 27 billion in 2023), over 80 percent of which
26887-714: Was the granddaughter of James Rood Doolittle , who served as US Senator from Wisconsin between 1857 and 1869, and of Joel Aldrich Matteson , Governor of Illinois from 1853 to 1857. In 1909, the family moved to Fort Sumner , New Mexico, where William learned to speak fluent Spanish. He attended the local schools in Fort Sumner and was home schooled by his mother for a time. He commenced at Santa Rosa High School , where his mother taught English and Spanish, rapidly advancing through three years in just one. In 1917 he attended Fort Sumner High School, from which he graduated in 1918. In 1917 Parsons traveled to Roswell , New Mexico, to take
27054-417: Was therefore a success; key American physicists were now aware of the potential power of an atomic bomb. On 9 October 1941, President Roosevelt approved the atomic program after he convened a meeting with Vannevar Bush and Vice President Henry A. Wallace . He created a Top Policy Group consisting of himself—although he never attended a meeting—Wallace, Bush, Conant, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson , and
27221-469: Was to have been a military laboratory with Oppenheimer and other researchers commissioned into the Army, but Robert Bacher and Isidor Rabi balked at the idea and convinced Oppenheimer that other scientists would object. Conant, Groves, and Oppenheimer then devised a compromise whereby the laboratory was operated by the University of California under contract to the War Department. Dorothy McKibbin ran
27388-423: Was to improve the gunnery scores of his command, and in this he succeeded. Parsons was posted back to Dahlgren in September 1939 as experimental officer. The atmosphere had changed considerably. In June 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the creation of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC), under the direction of Vannevar Bush . Richard C. Tolman , dean of the graduate school at Caltech ,
27555-410: Was too close to a major population center (Knoxville) in the unlikely event of a major nuclear accident. Groves recruited DuPont in November 1942 to be the prime contractor for the construction of the plutonium production complex. The President of the company, Walter S. Carpenter Jr. , wanted no profit of any kind; for legal reasons a nominal fee of one dollar was agreed upon. DuPont recommended that
27722-451: Was unimpressive, and even Parsons thought that it must have been smaller than the Hiroshima bomb. It failed to sink the target ship, the battleship USS Nevada , mainly because it missed it by a considerable distance. This made it difficult to assess the amount of damage caused, which was the objective of the exercise. Blandy then announced that the next test, Baker, would occur in just three weeks. This meant that Parsons had to carry out
27889-520: Was used for Chicago Pile 3 , the first reactor using heavy water and natural uranium, which went critical on 15 May 1944. The Chalk River, Ontario , site was established to rehouse the Allied effort at the Montreal Laboratory away from an urban area. A new community was built at Deep River, Ontario , to provide residences and facilities for the team members. The site was chosen for its proximity to
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