1. Atomic Bomb Research Isabella Narvaez Period 3 Mr. Albers

2. Fear Spreads ● In 1939 the scientific community learned that German physicists had learned how to split the uranium atom. ● Fear spread over the possibility the Nazis could build a bomb of complete destruction.

3. Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi ● Scientists Albert Einstein who escaped Nazi Germany and Enrico Fermi who escaped Fascist Italy were now living in the United States. ● They wanted the US government to know about the power the Axis powers were wielding.

4. ● Fermi traveled to Washington to express his concerns but was met with deaf ears. ● Einstein then wrote a letter to FDR urging for the development of an atomic research program. ● Roosevelt reluctantly agreed to proceed with the research.

5. The Manhattan Project ● In late 1941 the American effort to build the atomic bomb received its code name - The Manhattan Project.

6. Early Research ● At first the research was based at only Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Berkeley ● Major breakthrough occurred in December 1942 when Fermi and other scientists were able to create the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.

7. The Project Gains Steam ● This major milestone allowed the project to start gaining more funds, and advance more quickly. ● A main assembly plant was build in Los Alamos, New Mexico. ● 2 billion dollars ● 120,000 Americans employed

8. Secrecy ● Germans or Japanese could not learn about the project. ● Stalin should be kept in the dark. ● Keeping 120,000 people would be impossible; only a select few actually knew about the development of the bomb. ● Vice President Truman didn’t know about the project until he became president.

9. Testing ● Robert Oppenheimer was in charge of putting all the pieces together in New Mexico. ● Summer of 1945 Oppenheimer was ready to test the bomb.

10. Trinity Site ● July 16th 1945 at 5:30 AM - Scientists prepared to watch the detonation of the world's first atomic bomb. ● A blinding flash visible for 200 miles, a mushroom cloud that reached 40,000 feet and blowing out windows of peoples homes 100 miles away. ● The surrounding desert surface fused to glass.

11. The world entered the nuclear age...

12. Hiroshima and Nagasaki ● A month after the first atomic bomb was tested at the Trinity Site, two more atomic bombs produced by the project were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

13. Bibliography http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/362098/ Manhattan-Project http://www.ushistory.org/us/51f.asp http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past- exhibitions/einstein/peace-and-war/the-manhattan- project