Manhattan_Project

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was the code name for the US effort during World War II to produce the atomic bomb. It was named for the Manhattan Engineering District of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Much of the early research was done in New York City. Sparked by refugee physicists in the United States, the program was slowly organized after German scientists discovered nuclear fission in1938. Many US scientists expressed the fear that Hitler would attempt to build a fission bomb. In theory, Jungk wrote, “this fission bomb would be more destructive than all the explosives the US had.” Frustrated with the idea that Germany might produce an atomic bomb first, Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner asked the famous scientist Albert Einstein, “to use his influence and write a letter to president Franklin D. Roosevelt.” The letter pleaded for support to “further research the power of nuclear fission” and “warned the president of the devastating destruction Hitler could cause.” His letters were a success, and President Roosevelt established “The Fission Bomb Project.” Physicists from 1939 onward, conducted research to find answers to such questions as bomb, fission, project, atomic, first, nuclear, power, mass, hiroshima, war, uranium, new, energy, critical, uranium-235, research, reaction, president, plutonium, one, manhattan, chain, tons, tnt, time, scientists, neutrons, model, material, los, groves, create, city, alamos, achieved