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164-691: The NDRC was created by an order of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on June 27, 1940. It was part of the Council of National Defense , which had been created during 1916 to coordinate industry and resources for national security purposes. Vannevar Bush , the director of the Carnegie Institution, had pressed for the creation of the NDRC because he had experienced during World War I the lack of cooperation between civilian scientists and

328-829: A prohibitionist with a famous name. Roosevelt, then 38, resigned as Assistant Secretary after the Democratic convention and campaigned across the nation for the party ticket. During the campaign, Cox and Roosevelt defended the Wilson administration and the League of Nations , both of which were unpopular in 1920. Roosevelt personally supported U.S. membership in the League, but, unlike Wilson, he favored compromising with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and other "Reservationists". Republicans Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge defeated

492-535: A "column", consisting of a vertical tube with a hot wire down the centre. The advantage of the technique was that it was simple in design and there were no moving parts. But it could take months to reach equilibrium, required a lot of energy, and needed high temperatures that could cause a problem with the uranium hexafluoride. Another line of research at Liverpool was measuring the fission cross section of uranium-235, on which Frisch and Peierls' calculations depended. They had assumed that almost every collision between

656-662: A Nobel Prize winner, and George B. Pegram were sent to the UK to obtain more information. In January 1942, the OSRD was empowered to engage in large engineering projects in addition to research. Without the help of the MAUD Committee the Manhattan Project would have started months behind. Instead they were able to begin thinking about how to create a bomb, not whether it was possible. Gowing noted that "events that change

820-402: A Republican, but Roosevelt decided to seek the 1920 vice presidential nomination. After Governor James M. Cox of Ohio won the party's presidential nomination at the 1920 Democratic National Convention , he chose Roosevelt as his running mate, and the convention nominated him by acclamation . Although his nomination surprised most people, he balanced the ticket as a moderate, a Wilsonian, and

984-459: A campaign team led by Howe and Farley, and a " brain trust " of policy advisers, primarily composed of Columbia University and Harvard University professors. Some were not so sanguine about his chances, such as Walter Lippmann , the dean of political commentators, who observed: "He is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be president." However, Roosevelt's efforts as governor to address

1148-471: A car. Due to his aggressive campaign, his name gained recognition in the Hudson Valley, and in the Democratic landslide in the 1910 United States elections , Roosevelt won a surprising victory. Despite short legislative sessions, Roosevelt treated his new position as a full-time career. Taking his seat on January 1, 1911, Roosevelt soon became the leader of a group of "Insurgents" in opposition to

1312-474: A close. MAUD Committee The MAUD Committee was a British scientific working group formed during the Second World War . It was established to perform the research required to determine if an atomic bomb was feasible. The name MAUD came from a strange line in a telegram from Danish physicist Niels Bohr referring to his housekeeper, Maud Ray. The MAUD Committee was founded in response to

1476-460: A confined space, but a nuclear explosion will not do this. Peierls, Fuchs, Geoffrey Taylor and J. G. Kynch worked out the hydrodynamics to refute Kistiakowsky's argument. Taylor produced a paper on "The Formation of a Blast Wave by a Very Intense Explosion" in June 1941. The first draft of the final report of the MAUD Committee was written by Thomson in June 1941, and circulated among members of

1640-471: A court of appeals, as a depository of information, and as a tool of co-ordination; by ignoring or bypassing collective decision-making agencies, such as the Cabinet...and always by persuading, flattering, juggling, improvising, reshuffling, harmonizing, conciliating, manipulating. When Roosevelt was inaugurated on March 4, 1933, the U.S. was at the nadir of the worst depression in its history . A quarter of

1804-524: A descending pattern of recovery. Roosevelt was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down and was diagnosed with polio . A 2003 study strongly favored a diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome , but historians have continued to describe his paralysis according to the initial diagnosis. Though his mother favored his retirement from public life, Roosevelt, his wife, and Roosevelt's close friend and adviser, Louis Howe, were all determined that he continue his political career. He convinced many people that he

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1968-420: A distant second place. Roosevelt then promised the vice-presidential nomination to Garner, who controlled the votes of Texas and California; Garner threw his support behind Roosevelt after the third ballot, and Roosevelt clinched the nomination on the fourth ballot. Roosevelt flew in from New York to Chicago after learning that he had won the nomination, becoming the first major-party presidential nominee to accept

2132-596: A five kilogram bomb would be the equivalent to several thousand tons of dynamite, and even a one kilogram bomb would be impressive. Because of the potential radioactive fallout , they thought that the British might find it morally unacceptable. Oliphant took the Frisch–Peierls memorandum to Tizard in March 1940. He passed it on to Thomson, who discussed it with Cockcroft and Oliphant. They also heard from Jacques Allier of

2296-662: A four-day national "bank holiday", to end the run by depositors seeking to withdraw funds. He called for a special session of Congress on March 9, when Congress passed, almost sight unseen, the Emergency Banking Act . The act, first developed by the Hoover administration and Wall Street bankers, gave the president the power to determine the opening and closing of banks and authorized the Federal Reserve Banks to issue banknotes. The " first 100 Days " of

2460-707: A fourth year, taking graduate courses. Like his cousin Theodore, he was a member of The Explorers Club . Roosevelt entered Columbia Law School in 1904, but dropped out in 1907 after passing the New York bar examination . In 1908, he took a job with the prestigious law firm of Carter Ledyard & Milburn , working in the firm's admiralty law division. During his second year of college, Roosevelt met and proposed to Boston heiress Alice Sohier, who turned him down. Franklin then began courting his childhood acquaintance and fifth cousin once removed, Eleanor Roosevelt ,

2624-501: A great deal and incorporated some of his 1924 ideas into the design for the United Nations in 1944–1945. Smith, the Democratic presidential nominee in the 1928 presidential election , asked Roosevelt to run for governor of New York in the 1928 state election . Roosevelt initially resisted, as he was reluctant to leave Warm Springs and feared a Republican landslide. Party leaders eventually convinced him only he could defeat

2788-577: A house built for herself alongside that townhouse. Eleanor never felt at home in the houses at Hyde Park or New York; however, she loved the family's vacation home on Campobello Island , which was also a gift from Sara. Burns indicates that young Franklin Roosevelt was self-assured and at ease in the upper class. On the other hand, Eleanor was shy and disliked social life. Initially, Eleanor stayed home to raise their children. As his father had done, Franklin left childcare to his wife, and Eleanor delegated

2952-563: A meeting with the Belgian president of the company, Edgar Sengier . Since Union Minière management were friendly towards Britain, it was not considered necessary to immediately acquire the uranium, but Tizard's Committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Warfare (CSSAW) was directed to continue the research into the feasibility of atomic bombs. Thomson, at Imperial College London , and Mark Oliphant , an Australian physicist at

3116-602: A microscopic amount of pure uranium-235 in the United States, and a team under Merle Tuve at the Carnegie Institution of Washington was measuring the cross section. The uranium-235 was too valuable to send a sample to Britain, so Chadwick sent the Americans a list of measurements he wanted them to carry out. The final result was that the cross section was smaller than Frisch and Peierls had assumed, but

3280-454: A moderator for the fast neutrons. In conclusion though, while the nuclear reactor had considerable promise for future peaceful uses, the committee felt that it was not worth considering during the present war. In response to the MAUD Committee report, a nuclear weapons programme was launched. To co-ordinate the effort, a new directorate was created, with the deliberately misleading name of Tube Alloys for security purposes. Sir John Anderson ,

3444-462: A more unassuming name, the MAUD Committee. MAUD was assumed by many to be an acronym, however it is not. The name MAUD came to be in an unusual way. On 9 April 1940, the day Germany invaded Denmark , Niels Bohr had sent a telegram to Frisch. The telegram ended with a strange line "Tell Cockcroft and Maud Ray Kent". At first it was thought to be code regarding radium or other vital atomic-weapons-related information, hidden in an anagram . One suggestion

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3608-620: A neutron of any energy and a uranium-235 nucleus would produce a fission. The value they used for the fission cross section was that published by French researchers in 1939, but data published by the Americans in the 15 March and 15 April 1940 issues of the American journal Physical Review indicated that it was much smaller. No pure uranium-235 was available, so experiments at Liverpool were conducted with natural uranium. The results were inconclusive, but tended to support Frisch and Peierls. By March 1941, Alfred Nier had managed to produce

3772-480: A niece of Theodore Roosevelt. In 1903, Franklin proposed to Eleanor. Despite resistance from his mother, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt were married on March 17, 1905. Eleanor's father, Elliott , was deceased; Theodore, who was then president, gave away the bride. The young couple moved into Springwood . Franklin's mother, Sara Roosevelt, also provided a townhouse for the newlyweds in New York City, and had

3936-589: A number of scientists considered whether an atomic bomb was practical. At the University of Liverpool , Chadwick and the Polish refugee scientist Joseph Rotblat tackled the problem, but their calculations were inconclusive. At Cambridge, Nobel Prize in Physics laureates George Paget Thomson and William Lawrence Bragg wanted the government to take urgent action to acquire uranium ore . The main source of this

4100-598: A paper written shortly after they arrived in England, Halban and Kowarski theorised that slow neutrons could be absorbed by uranium-238, forming uranium-239. A letter by Edwin McMillan and Philip Abelson published in the Physical Review on 15 June 1940 stated that this decayed to an element with an atomic number of 93, and then to one with an atomic number of 94 and mass of 239, which, while still radioactive,

4264-447: A political figure. Roosevelt and Smith came from different backgrounds and never fully trusted one another, but Roosevelt supported Smith's progressive policies, while Smith was happy to have Roosevelt's backing. Roosevelt gave presidential nominating speeches for Smith at the 1924 and 1928 Democratic National Conventions; the speech at the 1924 convention marked a return to public life following his illness and convalescence. That year,

4428-521: A representative of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). Basil Dickins from the MAP acted as the secretary of the Technical Committee. Thomson chaired both committees. The MAUD Committee's research was split among four different English universities: the University of Birmingham , the University of Liverpool , the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford . At first the research

4592-633: A requested $ 10,000,000) for research. The NDRC's most important project eventually became the Manhattan Project —the full-scale project to produce nuclear weapons by the United States. An Advisory Committee on Uranium had been established to consider the feasibility of an atomic bomb as part of the National Bureau of Standards during 1939 as the result of the Einstein–Szilárd letter , but had not made significant progress. It

4756-455: A seat in the state senate. The senate district, located in Dutchess , Columbia , and Putnam , was strongly Republican. Roosevelt feared that opposition from Theodore could end his campaign, but Theodore encouraged his candidacy despite their party differences. Acting as his own campaign manager, Roosevelt traveled throughout the senate district via automobile at a time when few could afford

4920-535: A separate home in Hyde Park at Val-Kill and devoted herself to social and political causes independent of her husband. The emotional break in their marriage was so severe that when Franklin asked Eleanor in 1942—in light of his failing health—to come live with him again, she refused. Roosevelt was not always aware of Eleanor's visits to the White House. For some time, Eleanor could not easily reach Roosevelt on

5084-833: A staff of physical therapists and using most of his inheritance to purchase the Merriweather Inn. In 1938, he founded the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis , leading to the development of polio vaccines. Roosevelt remained active in New York politics while also establishing contacts in the South, particularly in Georgia, in the 1920s. He issued an open letter endorsing Al Smith 's successful campaign in New York's 1922 gubernatorial election, which both aided Smith and showed Roosevelt's continuing relevance as

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5248-416: A statement that: We should like to emphasize at the beginning of this report that we entered the project with more skepticism than belief, though we felt it was a matter which had to be investigated. As we proceeded we became more and more convinced that release of atomic energy on a large scale is possible and that conditions can be chosen which would make it a very powerful weapon of war. We have now reached

5412-411: A strange wish for you. It is that you may never be President of the United States." Franklin's mother, the dominant influence in his early years, once declared, "My son Franklin is a Delano, not a Roosevelt at all." James, who was 54 when Franklin was born, was considered by some as a remote father, though biographer James MacGregor Burns indicates James interacted with his son more than was typical at

5576-590: A strong influence throughout Roosevelt's life, officiating at his wedding and visiting him as president. Like most of his Groton classmates, Roosevelt went to Harvard College . He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and the Fly Club , and served as a school cheerleader. Roosevelt was relatively undistinguished as a student or athlete, but he became editor-in-chief of The Harvard Crimson daily newspaper, which required ambition, energy, and

5740-534: A system for funding military medicine . At Bush's insistence Roosevelt issued Executive Order No. 8807 on June 28, 1941, which established the Office of Scientific Research and Development . The NDRC technically still existed after the creation of the OSRD but its authority had been reduced from being able to actually fund research to becoming simply an advisory body to the OSRD. The NDRC ceased to exist officially after its last meeting on January 20, 1947. When it became

5904-644: A time scale by only a few months can nevertheless change history." On 16 July 1945, the Manhattan Project detonated the first atomic bomb in the Trinity nuclear test . The Soviet Union received details of British research from its atomic spies Klaus Fuchs , Engelbert Broda and Cairncross. Lavrentiy Beria , the head of the NKVD, gave a report to the General Secretary of the Communist Party of

6068-553: A tour of the battlefield at Verdun . In September, on the ship voyage back to the United States, he contracted pandemic influenza with complicating pneumonia, which left him unable to work for a month. After Germany signed an armistice in November 1918, Daniels and Roosevelt supervised the demobilization of the Navy. Against the advice of older officers such as Admiral William Benson —who claimed he could not "conceive of any use

6232-709: A valuable political player. After the election, Roosevelt returned to New York City, where he practiced law and served as a vice president of the Fidelity and Deposit Company . Roosevelt sought to build support for a political comeback in the 1922 elections , but his career was derailed by an illness. It began while the Roosevelts were vacationing at Campobello Island in August 1921. His main symptoms were fever; symmetric, ascending paralysis; facial paralysis; bowel and bladder dysfunction; numbness and hyperesthesia ; and

6396-490: Is a real possibility that a romantic relationship existed" between his father and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway , who resided in the White House during part of World War II. Aides referred to her at the time as "the president's girlfriend", and gossip linking the two romantically appeared in newspapers. Roosevelt cared little for the practice of law and told friends he planned to enter politics. Despite his admiration for cousin Theodore, Franklin shared his father's bond with

6560-420: Is inversely proportional to the square root of the gas's molecular mass . In a container with a porous barrier containing a mixture of two gases, the lighter molecules will pass out of the container more rapidly than the heavier molecules. The gas leaving the container is slightly enriched in the lighter molecules, while the residual gas is slightly depleted. Simon's team conducted experiments with copper gauze as

6724-470: The 73rd United States Congress saw an unprecedented amount of legislation and set a benchmark against which future presidents have been compared. When the banks reopened on Monday, March 15, stock prices rose by 15 percent and in the following weeks over $ 1 billion was returned to bank vaults, ending the bank panic. On March 22, Roosevelt signed the Cullen–Harrison Act , which brought Prohibition to

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6888-532: The Aspinwalls and the Delanos , respectively—and resided at Springwood , a large estate south of Hyde Park's historic center. Roosevelt's father, James, graduated from Harvard Law School but chose not to practice law after receiving an inheritance from his grandfather . James, a prominent Bourbon Democrat , once took Franklin to meet President Grover Cleveland , who said to him: "My little man, I am making

7052-531: The Bonus Army further damaged the incumbent's popularity, as newspapers across the country criticized the use of force to disperse assembled veterans. Roosevelt won 57% of the popular vote and carried all but six states. Historians and political scientists consider the 1932–36 elections to be a political realignment . Roosevelt's victory was enabled by the creation of the New Deal coalition , small farmers,

7216-630: The Democratic Party , and in preparation for the 1910 elections , the party recruited Roosevelt to run for a seat in the New York State Assembly . Roosevelt was a compelling recruit: he had the personality and energy for campaigning and the money to pay for his own campaign. But Roosevelt's campaign for the state assembly ended after the Democratic incumbent, Lewis Stuyvesant Chanler , chose to seek re-election. Rather than putting his political hopes on hold, Roosevelt ran for

7380-482: The Earl of Suffolk and Major Ardale Golding on the steamer Broompark . The heavy water, valued at £22,000, was initially kept at HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs , but was later secretly stored in the library at Windsor Castle . The French scientists moved to Cambridge, where they conducted experiments that conclusively showed that a nuclear chain reaction could be produced in a mixture of uranium oxide and heavy water. In

7544-724: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation , and Social Security . In 1940 , he ran successfully for reelection , before the official implementation of term limits . Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Roosevelt obtained a declaration of war on Japan. After Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. on December 11, 1941, the United States Congress approved additional declarations of war in return. He worked closely with other national leaders in leading

7708-457: The Frisch–Peierls memorandum , which was written in March 1940 by Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch , two physicists who were refugees from Nazi Germany working at the University of Birmingham under the direction of Mark Oliphant . The memorandum argued that a small sphere of pure uranium-235 could have the explosive power of thousands of tons of TNT . The chairman of the MAUD Committee

7872-633: The Lord President of the Council , became the minister responsible, and Wallace Akers from ICI was appointed the director of Tube Alloys. Tube Alloys and the Manhattan Project exchanged information, but did not initially combine their efforts, ostensibly over concerns about American security. Ironically, it was the British project that had already been penetrated by atomic spies for the Soviet Union. The most significant of them at this time

8036-493: The Navy , was well-read on the subject, and was an ardent supporter of a large, efficient force. With Wilson's support, Daniels and Roosevelt instituted a merit-based promotion system and extended civilian control over the autonomous departments of the Navy. Roosevelt oversaw the Navy's civilian employees and earned the respect of union leaders for his fairness in resolving disputes. No strikes occurred during his seven-plus years in

8200-487: The Tammany Hall machine that dominated the state Democratic Party. In the 1911 U.S. Senate election , which was determined in a joint session of the New York state legislature, Roosevelt and nineteen other Democrats caused a prolonged deadlock by opposing a series of Tammany-backed candidates. Tammany threw its backing behind James A. O'Gorman , a highly regarded judge whom Roosevelt found acceptable, and O'Gorman won

8364-481: The United States Navy Reserve and the Council of National Defense . In April 1917, after Germany declared it would engage in unrestricted submarine warfare and attacked several U.S. ships, Congress approved Wilson's call for a declaration of war on Germany . Roosevelt requested that he be allowed to serve as a naval officer, but Wilson insisted that he continue as Assistant Secretary. For

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8528-512: The University of Birmingham , were each tasked with carrying out a series of experiments on uranium. By February 1940, Thomson's team had failed to create a chain reaction in natural uranium, and he had decided that it was not worth pursuing. At Birmingham, Oliphant's team had reached a different conclusion. Oliphant had delegated the task to Frisch and Rudolf Peierls , two German refugee scientists who could not work on Oliphant's radar project because they were enemy aliens , and therefore lacked

8692-669: The electromagnetic separation process at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory . Cockcroft became the director of the joint British-Canadian Montreal Laboratory . A British mission to the Los Alamos Laboratory was led by Chadwick, and later Peierls, which included several of Britain's most eminent scientists. As overall head of the British Mission, Chadwick forged a close and successful partnership, and ensured that British participation

8856-478: The liquid drop model developed by Bohr and Fritz Kalckar to explain the mechanism of nuclear fission. Bohr had an epiphany that the fission at low energies was principally due to the uranium-235 isotope, while at high energies it was mainly due to the more abundant uranium-238 isotope. The former makes up just 0.7% of natural uranium, while the latter accounts for 99.3%. Frédéric Joliot-Curie and his Paris colleagues Hans von Halban and Lew Kowarski raised

9020-430: The $ 100,000 American Peace Award for the best plan to deliver world peace. Roosevelt had leisure time and interest, and he drafted a plan for the contest. He never submitted it because Eleanor was selected as a judge for the prize. His plan called for a new world organization that would replace the League of Nations. Although Roosevelt had been the vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket of 1920 that supported

9184-673: The Allies against the Axis powers . Roosevelt supervised the mobilization of the American economy to support the war effort and implemented a Europe first strategy. He also initiated the development of the first atomic bomb and worked with the other Allied leaders to lay the groundwork for the United Nations and other post-war institutions, even coining the term "United Nations". Roosevelt won reelection in 1944 but died in 1945 after his physical health seriously and steadily declined during

9348-1039: The American effort, which eventually became the Manhattan Project . The report was also revealed to the Soviet Union by its atomic spies , and helped start the Soviet atomic bomb project . The neutron was discovered by James Chadwick at the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge in February 1932. Two months later, his Cavendish colleagues John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split lithium atoms with accelerated protons . In December 1938, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann at Hahn's laboratory in Berlin-Dahlem bombarded uranium with slow neutrons, and discovered that barium had been produced. Hahn wrote to his colleague Lise Meitner , who, with her nephew Otto Frisch , proved that

9512-482: The Cox–Roosevelt ticket in the presidential election by a wide margin, carrying every state outside of the South. Roosevelt accepted the loss and later reflected that the relationships and goodwill that he built in the 1920 campaign proved to be a major asset in his 1932 campaign. The 1920 election also saw the first public participation of Eleanor Roosevelt who, with the support of Louis Howe , established herself as

9676-459: The Democrats were badly divided between an urban wing, led by Smith, and a conservative, rural wing, led by William Gibbs McAdoo . On the 101st ballot, the nomination went to John W. Davis , a compromise candidate who suffered a landslide defeat in the 1924 presidential election . Like many, Roosevelt did not abstain from alcohol during Prohibition, but publicly he sought to find a compromise on

9840-746: The French Deuxième Bureau , who had been involved in the removal of the entire stock of heavy water from Norway. He told them of the interest the Germans had shown in the heavy water, and in the activity of the French researchers in Paris. Immediate action was taken: the Ministry of Economic Warfare was asked to secure stocks of uranium oxide in danger of being captured by the Germans; British intelligence agencies were asked to investigate

10004-402: The Great Depression. Reflecting changing public opinion, the Democratic platform included a call for the repeal of Prohibition; Roosevelt himself had not taken a public stand on the issue prior to the convention but promised to uphold the party platform. Otherwise, Roosevelt's primary campaign strategy was one of caution, intent upon avoiding mistakes that would distract from Hoover's failings on

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10168-433: The House John Nance Garner of Texas and Al Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential nominee. Roosevelt entered the convention with a delegate lead due to his success in the 1932 Democratic primaries , but most delegates entered the convention unbound to any particular candidate. On the first presidential ballot, Roosevelt received the votes of more than half but less than two-thirds of the delegates, with Smith finishing in

10332-610: The Interior and Secretary of Agriculture, respectively. In February 1933, Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt by Giuseppe Zangara , who expressed a "hate for all rulers". As he was attempting to shoot Roosevelt, Zangara was struck by a woman with her purse; he instead mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak , who was sitting alongside Roosevelt. As president, Roosevelt appointed powerful men to top positions in government. However, he made all of his administration's major decisions himself, regardless of any delays, inefficiencies, or resentments doing so may have caused. Analyzing

10496-402: The League, by 1924 he was ready to scrap it. His draft of a "Society of Nations" accepted the reservations proposed by Henry Cabot Lodge in the 1919 Senate debate. The new Society would not become involved in the Western Hemisphere, where the Monroe doctrine held sway. It would not have any control over military forces. Although Roosevelt's plan was never made public, he thought about the problem

10660-448: The MAP to write to firms requesting priority for items required by the scientists. There were also shortages of manpower, as chemists and physicists had been diverted to war work. Of necessity, the universities employed many aliens or ex-aliens. The MAP was initially opposed to their employment on security grounds, especially as most were from enemy or occupied countries. Their employment was only made possible because they were employed by

10824-453: The MAUD Committee at Cambridge was jointly led by Bragg and Cockcroft. It included Bretscher, Feather, Halban, Kowarski, Herbert Freundlich and Nicholas Kemmer . Paul Dirac assisted as a consultant, although he was not formally part of the team. On 19 June 1940, following the German invasion of France , Halban, Kowarski and other French scientists and their families, along with their precious stock of heavy water, were brought to England by

10988-454: The MAUD Committee in as good grace as Frisch and Peierls. In response, two new committees were created in March 1941 to replace the MAUD Committee and the Technical Sub-Committee, called the MAUD Policy Committee and the MAUD Technical Committee. Unlike the original two committees, they had written terms of reference. The terms of reference of the MAUD Policy Committee were: Those of the MAUD Technical Committee were: The MAUD Policy Committee

11152-403: The NDRC created new laboratories, including the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , which aided the development of radar , and the Underwater Sound Laboratory at New London, Connecticut, which developed sonar . The former grew to be the largest single activity of the NDRC. In the year of its autonomous existence, the NDRC received approximately $ 6,500,000 (out of

11316-405: The NDRC of the OSRD, the committee membership and structure was re-organized. The NDRC of the OSRD membership consisted of Conant (Chairman), Tolman (Vice-Chairman), Adams, Compton, and Jewett, along with the Commission of Patents (Coe until September 1945, and then Casper W. Ooms ), and the representatives of the Army and Navy (which changed periodically). The Committee on Uranium was reorganized as

11480-468: The NDRC was not meant to replace the research work done by the Army and Navy in their own laboratories or through industry contracts, but rather to "supplement this activity by extending the research base and enlisting the aid of the scientists who can effectively contribute to the more rapid improvement of important devices, and by study determine where new effort on new instrumentalities may be usefully employed." (Quoted in Stewart 1948, p. 8). The NDRC

11644-531: The NDRC were: Vannevar Bush , President of the Carnegie Institution (Chairman); Rear Admiral Harold G. Bowen, Sr. ; Conway P. Coe , Commissioner of Patents; Karl Compton , President of MIT ; James B. Conant , President of Harvard University ; Frank B. Jewett , President of the National Academy of Sciences and President of Bell Telephone Laboratories ; Brigadier General George V. Strong ; and Richard C. Tolman , Professor of Physical Chemistry and Mathematical Physics at California Institute of Technology . Strong

11808-739: The Navy Department as World War I broke out in Europe in August 1914. Though he remained publicly supportive of Wilson, Roosevelt sympathized with the Preparedness Movement , whose leaders strongly favored the Allied Powers and called for a military build-up. The Wilson administration initiated an expansion of the Navy after the sinking of the RMS Lusitania by a German submarine , and Roosevelt helped establish

11972-703: The President. The Uranium Committee became the Uranium Section of the OSRD, which was soon renamed the S-1 Section for security reasons. Bush engaged Arthur Compton , a Nobel Prize winner, and the National Academy of Sciences . His report was issued on 17 May 1941. It endorsed a stronger effort, but did not address the design or manufacture of a bomb in any detail. Information from the MAUD Committee came from British scientists travelling to

12136-473: The Republican Party to launch a third-party campaign against Wilson and sitting Republican president William Howard Taft . Franklin's decision to back Wilson over his cousin in the general election alienated some of his family, except Theodore. Roosevelt overcame a bout of typhoid fever that year and, with help from journalist Louis McHenry Howe , he was re-elected in the 1912 elections . After

12300-458: The Republican gubernatorial nominee, New York Attorney General Albert Ottinger . He won the party's gubernatorial nomination by acclamation and again turned to Howe to lead his campaign. Roosevelt was joined on the campaign trail by associates Samuel Rosenman , Frances Perkins , and James Farley . While Smith lost the presidency in a landslide, and was defeated in his home state, Roosevelt

12464-414: The S-1 Section and it stopped being part of NDRC jurisdiction during December 1941. The NDRC funded research into hundreds of different projects at many different educational and industrial sites around the country. Some of the ones it is best remembered for include: The NDRC's research organization changed constantly during its single year of autonomous existence. During early June 1941, shortly before it

12628-878: The Southern whites, Catholics, big-city political machines, labor unions, northern black Americans (southern ones were still disfranchised), Jews, intellectuals, and political liberals. The creation of the New Deal coalition transformed American politics and started what political scientists call the "New Deal Party System" or the Fifth Party System . Between the Civil War and 1929, Democrats had rarely controlled both houses of Congress and had won just four of seventeen presidential elections; from 1932 to 1979, Democrats won eight of twelve presidential elections and generally controlled both houses of Congress. Roosevelt

12792-475: The Soviet Union , Joseph Stalin , in March 1942 that included the MAUD reports and other British documents passed by Cairncross. In 1943 the NKVD obtained a copy of the final report by the MAUD Committee. This led Stalin to order the start of a Soviet programme, although it had very limited resources. Igor Kurchatov was appointed director of the nascent programme later that year. Six years later, on 29 August 1949,

12956-528: The US where there were plans to make heavy water on a large scale. Plutonium might be more suitable than uranium-235, and plutonium research should continue in Britain. It concluded that the controlled fission of uranium could be used to generate heat energy for use in machines, and provide large quantities of radioisotopes which could be used as substitutes for radium . Heavy water or possibly graphite might serve as

13120-635: The United States in late August 1941, ostensibly to discuss the radar programme, but actually to find out why the United States was ignoring the MAUD Committee's findings. Oliphant reported: "The minutes and reports had been sent to Lyman Briggs, who was the Director of the Uranium Committee, and we were puzzled to receive virtually no comment. I called on Briggs in Washington, only to find out that this inarticulate and unimpressive man had put

13284-619: The United States, notably the Tizard Mission , and from American observers at the MAUD Committee meetings in April and July 1941. Cockcroft, who was part of the Tizard Mission, reported that the American project lagged behind the British one, and was not proceeding as fast. Britain was at war and felt an atomic bomb was urgent, but the US was not yet at war. It was Oliphant who pushed the American programme into action. He flew to

13448-554: The ability to manage others. He later said, "I took economics courses in college for four years, and everything I was taught was wrong." Roosevelt's father died in 1900, distressing him greatly. The following year, Roosevelt's fifth cousin Theodore Roosevelt became U.S. president. Theodore's vigorous leadership style and reforming zeal made him Franklin's role model and hero. He graduated from Harvard in three years in 1903 with an A.B. in history. He remained there for

13612-507: The activities of German nuclear scientists; and A. V. Hill , the British Scientific Attaché in Washington, was asked to find out what the Americans were up to. Hill reported that the Americans had scientists investigating the matter, but they did not think that any military applications would be found. A committee was created as a response to the Frisch–Peierls memorandum. It held its first meeting on 10 April 1940, in

13776-722: The barrier. Because uranium hexafluoride, the only known gas containing uranium, was both scarce and difficult to handle, a mixture of carbon dioxide and water vapour was used to test it. The result of this work was a report from Simon on the "Estimate of the Size of an Actual Separation Plant" in December 1940. He described an industrial plant capable of producing a kilogram per day of uranium enriched to 99 per cent uranium-235. The plant would use 70,000 square metres (750,000 sq ft) of membrane barriers, in 18,000 separation units in 20 stages. The plant would cover 40 acres (16 ha),

13940-463: The bomb and said we had no right to work on power plants or anything but the bomb. The bomb would cost 25 million dollars, he said, and Britain did not have the money or the manpower, so it was up to us." Oliphant then visited his friend Ernest Lawrence , an American Nobel Prize winner, to explain the urgency. Lawrence contacted Compton and James B. Conant , who received a copy of the final MAUD Report from Thomson on 3 October 1941. Harold Urey , also

14104-412: The committee on 26 June, with instructions that the next meeting on 2 July would discuss it. A considerable amount of editing was done, mainly by Chadwick. At this stage it was divided into two reports. The first was on "Use of Uranium for a Bomb"; the second one "Use of Uranium as a Source of Power". They consolidated all the research and experiments the MAUD Committee had completed. The report opened with

14268-399: The conclusion that it will be possible to make an effective uranium bomb which, containing some 25 lb of active material, would be equivalent as regards destructive effect to 1,800 tons of TNT and would also release large quantities of radioactive substances which would make places near to where the bomb exploded dangerous to human life for a long period. The first report concluded that a bomb

14432-413: The economy. His statements attacked the incumbent and included no other specific policies or programs. After the convention, Roosevelt won endorsements from several progressive Republicans, including George W. Norris , Hiram Johnson , and Robert La Follette Jr. He also reconciled with the party's conservative wing, and even Al Smith was persuaded to support the Democratic ticket. Hoover's handling of

14596-469: The effects of the depression in his own state established him as the front-runner for the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination. Roosevelt rallied the progressive supporters of the Wilson administration while also appealing to many conservatives, establishing himself as the leading candidate in the South and West. The chief opposition to Roosevelt's candidacy came from Northeastern conservatives, Speaker of

14760-441: The election in late March. Roosevelt in the process became a popular figure among New York Democrats. News articles and cartoons depicted "the second coming of a Roosevelt", sending "cold shivers down the spine of Tammany". Roosevelt also opposed Tammany Hall by supporting New Jersey Governor Woodrow Wilson 's successful bid for the 1912 Democratic nomination . The election became a three-way contest when Theodore Roosevelt left

14924-648: The election, he served as chairman of the Agriculture Committee; his success with farm and labor bills was a precursor to his later New Deal policies. He had then become more consistently progressive , in support of labor and social welfare programs. Roosevelt's support of Wilson led to his appointment in March 1913 as Assistant Secretary of the Navy , the second-ranking official in the Navy Department after Secretary Josephus Daniels who paid it little attention. Roosevelt had an affection for

15088-480: The encouragement of his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt , he returned to public office as governor of New York from 1929 to 1933, during which he promoted programs to combat the Great Depression. In the 1932 presidential election , Roosevelt defeated president Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory . During his first 100 days as president , Roosevelt spearheaded unprecedented federal legislation and directed

15252-609: The end of Prohibition . In 1936, Roosevelt won a landslide reelection . He was unable to expand the Supreme Court in 1937 , the same year the conservative coalition was formed to block the implementation of further New Deal programs and reforms. Major surviving programs and legislation implemented under Roosevelt include the Securities and Exchange Commission , the National Labor Relations Act ,

15416-556: The federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing the New Deal , building the New Deal coalition , and realigning American politics into the Fifth Party System . He created numerous programs to provide relief to the unemployed and farmers while seeking economic recovery with the National Recovery Administration and other programs. He also instituted major regulatory reforms related to finance, communications, and labor, and presided over

15580-433: The fleet will ever have for aviation"—Roosevelt personally ordered the preservation of the Navy's Aviation Division . With the Wilson administration near an end, Roosevelt planned his next run for office. He approached Herbert Hoover about running for the 1920 Democratic presidential nomination, with Roosevelt as his running mate. Roosevelt's plan for Hoover to run fell through after Hoover publicly declared himself to be

15744-611: The governor's wife but would also be free to pursue her own agenda and interests. He also began holding " fireside chats ", in which he directly addressed his constituents via radio, often pressuring the New York State Legislature to advance his agenda. In October 1929, the Wall Street Crash occurred and the Great Depression in the United States began. Roosevelt saw the seriousness of

15908-668: The ground-floor main committee room of the Royal Society in Burlington House in London. Its meetings were invariably held there. The original members were Thomson, Chadwick, Cockcroft, Oliphant and Philip Moon ; Patrick Blackett , Charles Ellis and Norman Haworth were subsequently added, along with a representative of the Director of Scientific Research at the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP). The MAUD Committee held its first two meetings in April 1940 before it

16072-648: The issue acceptable to both wings of the party. In 1925, Smith appointed Roosevelt to the Taconic State Park Commission, and his fellow commissioners chose him as chairman. In this role, he came into conflict with Robert Moses , a Smith protégé, who was the primary force behind the Long Island State Park Commission and the New York State Council of Parks. Roosevelt accused Moses of using

16236-640: The judiciary, the police force, and organized crime , prompting the creation of the Seabury Commission . The Seabury investigations exposed an extortion ring, led many public officials to be removed from office, and made the decline of Tammany Hall inevitable. Roosevelt supported reforestation with the Hewitt Amendment in 1931, which gave birth to New York's State Forest system . As the 1932 presidential election approached, Roosevelt turned his attention to national politics, established

16400-492: The machinery would weigh 70,000 long tons (71,000 t) and consume 60,000 kW of power. He estimated that it would take 12 to 18 months to build at a cost of around £4 million, require 1,200 workers to operate, and cost £1.5 million per annum to run. "We are confident that the separation can be performed in the way described", he concluded, "and we even believe that the scheme is, in view of its object, not unduly expensive of time, money and effort." The division of

16564-652: The march of civilization." His platform called for aid to farmers, full employment , unemployment insurance, and old-age pensions. He was elected to a second term by a 14% margin. Roosevelt proposed an economic relief package and the establishment of the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration to distribute those funds. Led first by Jesse I. Straus and then by Harry Hopkins , the agency assisted over one-third of New York's population between 1932 and 1938. Roosevelt also began an investigation into corruption in New York City among

16728-427: The military. Bush managed to get a meeting with the President on June 12, 1940, and took a single sheet of paper describing the proposed agency. Roosevelt approved it in ten minutes. Government officials then complained that Bush was attempting to increase his authority and to bypass them—which he later admitted he was: In his June 15 letter which appointed Bush to the head of the committee, Roosevelt outlined that

16892-422: The more abundant uranium-238 in a nuclear reactor , and separation from uranium could be by chemical means, as it was a different element, thereby avoiding the necessity for isotope separation. Kemmer suggested that since uranium was named after the planet Uranus , element 93 could be named neptunium and 94 plutonium after the next two planets. Later it was discovered that the Americans had independently adopted

17056-522: The name recognition of prominent individuals including Roosevelt to win political support for state parks, but then diverting funds to the ones Moses favored on Long Island, while Moses worked to block the appointment of Howe to a salaried position as the Taconic commission's secretary. Roosevelt served on the commission until the end of 1928, and his contentious relationship with Moses continued as their careers progressed. In 1923 Edward Bok established

17220-498: The next year, Roosevelt remained in Washington to coordinate the naval deployment, as the Navy expanded fourfold. In the summer of 1918, Roosevelt traveled to Europe to inspect naval installations and meet with French and British officials. On account of his relation to Theodore Roosevelt, he was received very prominently considering his relatively junior rank, obtaining long private audiences with King George V and prime ministers David Lloyd George and Georges Clemenceau , as well as

17384-452: The nomination in person. His appearance was essential, to show himself as vigorous, despite his physical disability. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt declared, "I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people... This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms." Roosevelt promised securities regulation, tariff reduction, farm relief, government-funded public works, and other government actions to address

17548-481: The office, as he gained valuable experience in labor issues, wartime management, naval issues, and logistics. In 1914, Roosevelt ran for the seat of retiring Republican Senator Elihu Root of New York. Though he had the backing of Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo and Governor Martin H. Glynn , he faced a formidable opponent in Tammany Hall's James W. Gerard . He also was without Wilson's support, as

17712-530: The order of 10 × 10  s (ten " shakes "). From 1 to 10 per cent of the fissile material would fission in this time; but even an atomic bomb with 1 per cent efficiency would release as much energy as 180,000 times its weight in TNT. The division of the MAUD Committee at Oxford was led by Simon. As a German émigré, he was only able to get involved after Peierls vouched for him, pointing out that Simon had already begun research on isotope separation, which would give

17876-444: The other laboratories. He examined the different processes by which they were obtaining isotopes. By the end of the summer in 1940, Peierls preferred gaseous diffusion to thermal diffusion. A paper was received from the United States in which George Kistiakowsky argued that a nuclear weapon would do very little damage, as most of the energy would be expended heating the surrounding air. A chemical explosive generates very hot gases in

18040-473: The possibility of a nuclear chain reaction in a paper published in Nature in April 1939. It was apparent to many scientists that, in theory at least, an extremely powerful explosive could be created, although most still considered an atomic bomb an impossibility. The term was already familiar to the British public through the writings of H. G. Wells , in his 1913 novel The World Set Free . In Britain,

18204-567: The power to act. During the transition, Roosevelt chose Howe as his chief of staff, and Farley as Postmaster General. Frances Perkins, as Secretary of Labor, became the first woman appointed to a cabinet position. William H. Woodin , a Republican industrialist close to Roosevelt, was chosen for Secretary of the Treasury, while Roosevelt chose Senator Cordell Hull of Tennessee as Secretary of State. Harold L. Ickes and Henry A. Wallace , two progressive Republicans, were selected for Secretary of

18368-483: The president needed Tammany's forces for his legislation and 1916 re-election. Roosevelt was soundly defeated in the Democratic primary by Gerard, who in turn lost the general election to Republican James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr. He learned that federal patronage alone, without White House support, could not defeat a strong local organization. After the election, he and Tammany Hall boss Charles Francis Murphy sought accommodation and became allies. Roosevelt refocused on

18532-589: The president's administrative style, Burns concludes: The president stayed in charge of his administration...by drawing fully on his formal and informal powers as Chief Executive; by raising goals, creating momentum, inspiring a personal loyalty, getting the best out of people...by deliberately fostering among his aides a sense of competition and a clash of wills that led to disarray, heartbreak, and anger but also set off pulses of executive energy and sparks of creativity...by handing out one job to several men and several jobs to one man, thus strengthening his own position as

18696-466: The problem by using the fast neutrons produced by fission, thus omitting consideration of a neutron moderator . He too believed the critical mass of a sphere of uranium to be "of the order of tons". However, Bohr had contended that the uranium-235 isotope was far more likely to capture neutrons and fission even from neutrons with the low energies produced by fission. Frisch began experimenting with uranium enrichment through thermal diffusion . Progress

18860-410: The project a head start by his participation. The Oxford team was mostly composed of non-British scientists, including Nicholas Kurti , Kurt Mendelssohn , Heinrich Kuhn , Henry Shull Arms and Heinz London . They concentrated on isotope separation with a method known as gaseous diffusion . This is based on Graham's law , which states that the rate of effusion of a gas through a porous barrier

19024-509: The project, only British-born scientists were considered. Even despite their early contributions, Peierls and Frisch were not allowed to participate in the MAUD Committee because, at a time of war, it was considered a security threat to have enemy aliens in charge of a sensitive project. In September 1940, the Technical Sub-Committee was formed, with Peierls and Frisch as members. However, Halban did not take his exclusion from

19188-410: The quote for a kilogram of uranium hexafluoride came to £5,000. Nonetheless, the order was placed in December 1940. ICI also explored methods of producing pure uranium metal. Peierls and his team worked on the theoretical problems of a nuclear bomb. In essence, they were in charge of finding out the technical features of the bomb. Along with Fuchs, Peierls also interpreted all the experimental data from

19352-409: The reports in his safe and had not shown them to members of his committee. I was amazed and distressed." Oliphant met with the S-1 Section. Samuel K. Allison was a new committee member, an experimental physicist and a protégé of Compton at the University of Chicago . Oliphant "came to a meeting", Allison recalled, "and said 'bomb' in no uncertain terms. He told us we must concentrate every effort on

19516-432: The requisite security clearance. Francis Perrin had defined a critical mass of uranium to be the smallest amount that could sustain a chain reaction, and had calculated it to be about 40 tonnes (39 long tons; 44 short tons). He reckoned that if a neutron reflector were placed around it, this might be reduced to 12 tonnes (12 long tons; 13 short tons). In a theoretical paper written in 1939, Peierls attempted to simplify

19680-460: The research culminated in two reports, "Use of Uranium for a Bomb" and "Use of Uranium as a Source of Power", known collectively as the MAUD Report. The report discussed the feasibility and necessity of an atomic bomb for the war effort. In response, the British created a nuclear weapons project, code named Tube Alloys . The MAUD Report was made available to the United States, where it energised

19844-425: The resulting critical mass was still only about eight kilograms. Meanwhile, Pryce investigated how long a runaway nuclear chain reaction in an atomic bomb would continue before it blew itself apart. He calculated that since the neutrons produced by fission have an energy of about 1 MeV (0.16 pJ) this corresponded to a speed of 1.4 × 10  cm/s . The major part of the chain reaction would be completed in

20008-492: The salaries of the universities' staff. However, Chadwick, Peierls, Simon and other professors, along with some research staff, were still paid out of university funds. The government also placed a £5,000 order for 5 kilograms (11 lb) of uranium hexafluoride with ICI. Uranium oxide was purchased from the Brandhurt Company, which sourced it from America. Wartime shortages impacted many areas of research, requiring

20172-417: The same names, following the same logic. Bretscher and Feather went further, theorising that irradiation of thorium could produce a new isotope of uranium, uranium-233 , which might also be susceptible to fission by both fast and slow neutrons. In addition to this work, Eric Rideal studied isotope separation through centrifugation . The division of the MAUD Committee at Birmingham was led by Peierls. He

20336-572: The separation of isotopes through thermal diffusion as was suggested in the Frisch–Peierls memorandum. This process was based on the fact that when a mixture of two gases passes through a temperature gradient, the heavier gas tends to concentrate at the cold end and the lighter gas at the warm end. That this can be used as a means of isotope separation was first demonstrated by Klaus Clusius and Gerhard Dickel in Germany in 1938, who used it to separate isotopes of neon . They used an apparatus called

20500-562: The situation and established a state employment commission. He also became the first governor to publicly endorse the idea of unemployment insurance . When Roosevelt began his run for a second term in May 1930, he reiterated his doctrine from the campaign two years before: "that progressive government by its very terms must be a living and growing thing, that the battle for it is never-ending and that if we let up for one single moment or one single year, not merely do we stand still but we fall back in

20664-502: The task to caregivers. She later said that she knew "absolutely nothing about handling or feeding a baby." They had six children. Anna , James , and Elliott were born in 1906, 1907, and 1910, respectively. The couple's second son, Franklin, died in infancy in 1909. Another son, also named Franklin , was born in 1914, and the youngest, John , was born in 1916. Roosevelt had several extramarital affairs. He commenced an affair with Eleanor's social secretary, Lucy Mercer , soon after she

20828-443: The telephone without his secretary's help; Franklin, in turn, did not visit Eleanor's New York City apartment until late 1944. Franklin broke his promise to Eleanor regarding Lucy Mercer. He and Mercer maintained a formal correspondence and began seeing each other again by 1941. Roosevelt's son Elliott claimed that his father had a 20-year affair with his private secretary, Marguerite LeHand . Another son, James, stated that "there

20992-460: The time. Franklin had a half-brother, James Roosevelt "Rosy" Roosevelt , from his father's previous marriage. As a child, Roosevelt learned to ride, shoot, sail, and play polo, tennis, and golf. Frequent trips to Europe—beginning at age two and from age seven to fifteen—helped Roosevelt become conversant in German and French. Except for attending public school in Germany at age nine, Roosevelt

21156-687: The two national projects. The Quebec Agreement established the Combined Policy Committee and the Combined Development Trust to co-ordinate their efforts. The 19 September 1944 Hyde Park Agreement extended both commercial and military co-operation into the post-war period. A British mission led by Akers assisted in the development of gaseous diffusion technology at the SAM Laboratories in New York. Another, headed by Oliphant, assisted with that of

21320-439: The unemployed. Recovery meant boosting the economy back to normal, and reform was required of the financial and banking systems. Through Roosevelt's 30 " fireside chats ", he presented his proposals directly to the American public as a series of radio addresses. Energized by his own victory over paralytic illness, he used persistent optimism and activism to renew the national spirit. On his second day in office, Roosevelt declared

21484-473: The universities and not the MAP, which was not allowed to employ enemy aliens. The MAP gradually came around to accepting their employment on the project. It protected some from internment , and provided security clearances. There were restrictions on where enemy aliens could work and live, and they were not allowed to own cars, so dispensations were required to allow them to visit other universities. "And so," wrote historian Margaret Gowing , "the greatest of all

21648-517: The uranium nucleus had been split. They published their finding in Nature in 1939. This phenomenon was a new type of nuclear disintegration, and was more powerful than any seen before. Frisch and Meitner calculated that the energy released by each disintegration was approximately 200 megaelectronvolts [MeV] (32 pJ). By analogy with the division of biological cells , they named the process " fission ". Niels Bohr and John A. Wheeler applied

21812-624: The war years. Since then, several of his actions have come under criticism , such as his ordering of the internment of Japanese Americans . Nonetheless, historical rankings consistently place him among the three greatest American presidents. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born on January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York , to businessman James Roosevelt I and his second wife, Sara Ann Delano . His parents, who were sixth cousins, came from wealthy, established New York families—the Roosevelts ,

21976-439: The wartime secrets was entrusted to scientists excluded for security reasons from other war work." The division of the MAUD Committee at Liverpool was led by Chadwick, who was assisted by Frisch, Rotblat, Gerry Pickavance , Maurice Pryce and John Riley Holt . The division at Liverpool also controlled a small team at the University of Bristol that included Alan Nunn May and Cecil Frank Powell . At Liverpool they focused on

22140-462: The workforce was unemployed, and farmers were in deep trouble as prices had fallen by 60%. Industrial production had fallen by more than half since 1929. Two million people were homeless. By the evening of March 4, 32 of the 48 states—as well as the District of Columbia—had closed their banks. Historians categorized Roosevelt's program as "relief, recovery, and reform". Relief was urgently needed by

22304-488: Was George Thomson . Research was split among four different universities: the University of Birmingham , University of Liverpool , University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford , each having a separate programme director. Various means of uranium enrichment were examined, as was nuclear reactor design, the properties of uranium-235, the use of the then-hypothetical element plutonium , and theoretical aspects of nuclear weapon design. After fifteen months of work,

22468-532: Was John Cairncross , a member of the notorious Cambridge Five , who worked as the private secretary to Lord Hankey , a minister without portfolio in the War Cabinet . Cairncross provided the NKVD with information from the MAUD Committee. The United Kingdom did not have the manpower or resources of the United States, and despite its early and promising start, Tube Alloys fell behind its American counterpart and

22632-451: Was homeschooled by tutors until age 14. He then attended Groton School , an Episcopal boarding school in Groton, Massachusetts . He was not among the more popular Groton students, who were better athletes and had rebellious streaks. Its headmaster, Endicott Peabody , preached the duty of Christians to help the less fortunate and urged his students to enter public service. Peabody remained

22796-411: Was assisted by Haworth, Johnson and, from 28 May 1941, Klaus Fuchs . Haworth led the chemists in studying the properties of uranium hexafluoride. One thing in its favour was that fluorine has only one isotope, so any difference in weight between two molecules is solely due to the different isotope of uranium. Otherwise, uranium hexafluoride was far from ideal. It solidified at 120 °F (49 °C),

22960-534: Was complete and wholehearted. In response to the 1939 Einstein-Szilard letter , President Franklin D. Roosevelt had created an Advisory Committee on Uranium in October 1939, chaired by Lyman Briggs . Research concentrated on slow fission for power production, but with a growing interest in isotope separation. In June 1941, Roosevelt created the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), with Vannevar Bush as its director, personally responsible to

23124-447: Was corrosive, and reacted with many substances, including water. It was therefore difficult and dangerous to handle. However, a search by the chemists at Birmingham failed to uncover another gaseous compound of uranium. Lindemann used his influence with Lord Melchett , a director of ICI, to get ICI to produce uranium hexafluoride on an industrial scale. ICI's hydrofluoric acid plant was out of commission, and required extensive repairs, so

23288-568: Was dwarfed by it. The British considered producing an atomic bomb without American help, but the project would have needed overwhelming priority, the projected cost was staggering, disruption to other wartime projects was inevitable, and it was unlikely to be ready in time to affect the outcome of the war in Europe . At the Quebec Conference in August 1943, Churchill and Roosevelt signed the Quebec Agreement , which merged

23452-450: Was elected governor by a one-percent margin, and became a contender in the next presidential election. Roosevelt proposed the construction of hydroelectric power plants and addressed the ongoing farm crisis of the 1920s . Relations between Roosevelt and Smith suffered after he chose not to retain key Smith appointees like Moses. He and his wife Eleanor established an understanding for the rest of his career; she would dutifully serve as

23616-413: Was elected in November 1932 but like his predecessors did not take office until the following March. After the election, President Hoover sought to convince Roosevelt to renounce much of his campaign platform and to endorse the Hoover administration's policies. Roosevelt refused Hoover's request to develop a joint program to stop the economic decline, claiming that it would tie his hands and that Hoover had

23780-521: Was elected to the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913 and was then the assistant Secretary of the Navy under President Woodrow Wilson during World War I . Roosevelt was James M. Cox 's running mate on the Democratic Party 's ticket in the 1920 U.S. presidential election , but Cox lost to Republican nominee Warren G. Harding . In 1921, Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness that permanently paralyzed his legs. Partly through

23944-487: Was estimated to be similar to that of the Halifax explosion in 1917, which had devastated everything in a 1 / 4 -mile (0.40 km) radius. The report warned that Germany had shown interest in heavy water, and although this was not considered useful for a bomb, the possibility remained that Germany could also be working on the bomb. The second report was shorter. It recommended that Halban and Kowarski should move to

24108-418: Was fairly long-lived. That a letter on such a sensitive subject could still be published irked Chadwick, and he asked for an official protest to be sent to the Americans, which was done. Bretscher and Feather argued, on theoretical grounds, that this element might be capable of fission by both fast and slow neutrons like uranium-235. If so, this promised another path to an atomic bomb, as it could be bred from

24272-410: Was feasible. It described it in technical detail, and provided specific proposals for developing it, including cost estimates. A plant to produce one kilogram of uranium-235 per day was estimated to cost £5 million and would require a large skilled labour force that was also needed for other parts of the war effort. It could be available in as little as two years. The amount of damage that it would do

24436-469: Was formally constituted by CSSAW. CSSAW was abolished in June 1940, and the MAUD Committee then came directly under the MAP. Thomson chaired the committee, and initially acted as its secretary as well, writing up the minutes in longhand on foolscap, until the MAP provided a secretary. At first the new committee was named the Thomson Committee after its chairman, but this was soon exchanged for

24600-407: Was hired in 1914. That affair was discovered by Eleanor in 1918. Franklin contemplated divorcing Eleanor, but Sara objected, and Mercer would not marry a divorced man with five children. Franklin and Eleanor remained married, and Franklin promised never to see Mercer again. Eleanor never forgave him for the affair, and their marriage shifted to become a political partnership. Eleanor soon established

24764-431: Was improving, which he believed to be essential prior to running for office. He laboriously taught himself to walk short distances while wearing iron braces on his hips and legs, by swiveling his torso while supporting himself with a cane. He was careful never to be seen using his wheelchair in public, and great care was taken to prevent any portrayal in the press that would highlight his disability. However, his disability

24928-402: Was instructed in Roosevelt's June 15 letter to report to the NDRC and Bush, establishing the chain of command which would later result in the full-scale bomb project. During June 1940 Bush reorganized the Uranium Committee into a scientific body and eliminated military membership. No longer beholden to the military for funds, the NDRC had greater access to money for nuclear research. However, there

25092-621: Was kept small and included only one representative from each university laboratory. Its members were: Blackett, Chadwick, Cockcroft, Ellis, Haworth, Franz Simon , Thomson and the Director of Scientific Research at the MAP. The MAUD Technical Committee's members were: Moses Blackman , Egon Bretscher , Norman Feather , Frisch, Halban, C. H. Johnson , Kowarski, Wilfrid Mann , Moon, Nevill Mott , Oliphant, Peierls and Thomson. Its meetings were normally attended by Winston Churchill 's scientific advisor, Frederick Lindemann , or his representative, and

25256-555: Was little impetus until the British MAUD Committee 's findings were presented in 1941. The increasing hostilities in Europe caused a desire to create a new organization which would supersede the NDRC and remedy some of the problems the NDRC was facing, in particular in converting scientific research into usable military technology ("development"), increased liaison between the different parts of military and civilian research in different government agencies, and creating

25420-536: Was managed by eight members, one of which was the chairman and two of which were appointed automatically by virtue of their positions as President of the National Academy of Sciences and the Commissioner of Patents . One member was appointed by the Secretary of War and another by the Secretary of the Navy ; the other four members were appointed without reference to other offices. The original eight members of

25584-565: Was paid for out of the universities' funds. Only in September 1940 did government funding become available. The MAP signed contracts that gave £3,000 to the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge (later increased to £6,500), £1,000 (later increased to £2,000) to the Clarendon Laboratory at Oxford, £1,500 to Birmingham, and £2,000 to Liverpool. The universities were reimbursed for expenses by the MAP, which also began to pay some of

25748-701: Was sceptical of the likelihood of an atomic bomb being developed, reckoning the odds of success at 100,000 to 1. Even at such long odds, the danger was sufficiently great to be taken seriously. Lord Chartfield , the Minister for Coordination of Defence , checked with the Treasury and Foreign Office , and found that the Belgian Congo uranium was owned by the Union Minière du Haut Katanga company. Its British vice-president, Lord Stonehaven , arranged

25912-439: Was slow; the required equipment was not available, and the radar project had first call on the available resources. He wondered what would happen if he was able to produce a sphere of pure uranium-235. When he used Peierls' formula to calculate its critical mass, he received a startling answer: less than a kilogram would be required. Frisch and Peierls produced the Frisch–Peierls memorandum in March 1940. In it they reported that

26076-473: Was succeeded by Brigadier General R.C. Moore on January 17, 1941. During its first meeting on July 2, the NDRC elected Tolman as its Vice-Chairman and appointed Irvin Stewart as its Secretary. The NDRC members met approximately once a month until September 1942, after which it met either weekly or bi-weekly until the end of the war with Germany, after which it met irregularly. Under the chairmanship of Bush

26240-604: Was superseded by the OSRD, its organization was as follows: The Committee on Uranium , chaired by Lyman Briggs , reported directly to the Chairman of the NDRC and as such does not appear in the chart above. Following the reorganization of the NDRC in December 1942, it had the following divisions: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945), also known as FDR ,

26404-670: Was the Belgian Congo , and they were worried that it could fall into German hands. Unsure as to how to go about this, they spoke to Sir William Spens , the master of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge . In April 1939, he approached Sir Kenneth Pickthorn , the local Member of Parliament , who took their concerns to the Secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defence , Major General Hastings Ismay . Ismay in turn asked Sir Henry Tizard for an opinion. Like many scientists, Tizard

26568-491: Was the 32nd president of the United States , serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. The longest-serving U.S. president, he is the only president to have served more than two terms. His initial two terms were centered on combating the Great Depression , while his third and fourth saw him shift his focus to America's involvement in World War II . A member of the prominent Delano and Roosevelt families, Roosevelt

26732-475: Was to replace the "y" with an "i", producing 'radium taken'. When Bohr returned to England in 1943, it was discovered that the message was addressed to John Cockcroft and Bohr's housekeeper Maud Ray, who was from Kent. Thus the committee was named the MAUD Committee. Although the initials stood for nothing, it was officially the MAUD Committee, not the Maud Committee. Because of the top secret aspect of

26896-589: Was well known before and during his presidency and became a major part of his image. He usually appeared in public standing upright, supported on one side by an aide or one of his sons. Beginning in 1925, Roosevelt spent most of his time in the Southern United States , at first on his houseboat, the Larooco . Intrigued by the potential benefits of hydrotherapy , he established a rehabilitation center at Warm Springs, Georgia , in 1926, assembling

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