In March 1943. I was employed at the Ilion, N. Y. plant of Remington Arms Co., a DuPont Company subsidiary. I had joined DuPont upon getting my degree in mechanical engineering seven years earlier. Remington was making Springfield rifles for the U.S. Army. My job. Area Supervisor of the Wood Shop. was the basis for my deferment from the draft. It may have been an important war job, but apparently it wasn't a key one. About the middle of the month. I was summoned to the office of the Plant Manager, Bill Wood. Bill told me that he had been asked by the Du Pont Personnel Department in Wilmington not to offer a transfer, but to advise me of one. Bill went on. "I don't know much about your new job. You will be at the University of Chicago without your family for three months. About July 1. you will be transferred to Site X. which is in Tennessee. It is anticipated that you will be there for about a year and then will move to Site W. I don't know where that is." My wife. Dot, and I were expecting our second child in August and I asked for and got permission to check with the obstetrician. With the doctor's assurance that there should be no problem and with Dot's concurrence, I agreed to the transfer.

          I had been instructed to report to Du Font's Personnel Manager at the University of Chicago, Dr. Walter Dew, whom I would find in the Metallurgical Laboratory. This seemed a strange assignment for a mechanical engineer with no training and no experience in metallurgy. Dr. Dew enlightened me. "Metallurgical Laboratory" was the code name for the project on which I would work. Dr. Dew covered some administrative details, including hours of work (eight per day, six days per week), salary (10% increase). overtime compensation (20% vs. 40% I had received at Ilion), living expense allowance at Chicago ($3.50 per day, less than half my actual cost).

          With the preliminaries out of the way. Dr. Dew withdrew from his desk drawer and handed to me a metal rod about an inch in diameter and six inches long. Except that it was unusually heavy, it seemed quite unremarkable. "That." he said, "is pure uranium. The objective of our project is to produce from uranium a weapon using atomic energy for its explosive power." I can't remember my exact response to this revelation, but I think it was restrained. I was insufficiently informed concerning nuclear energy to be shocked, as I should have been.

          Dr. Dew went on to tell me that there were about 40 Du Pont employees at the Met Lab. I was one of nine assigned to the Instrument Group, which was headed by Bill Overbeck. a university employee recently brought over from the Raytheon Corporation. During our three months at Chicago, we were expected to learn enough about the technical aspects of the project to qualify us for supervisory assignments at other sites. With that he handed me my pass to the Met Lab.

          The next morning, as instructed, I reported to Bill Overbeck in the West Stands of Stagg Field, where the Instrument Group had offices, a small conference room and a small shop area. Bill had an imposing job. His responsibility was to develop. design, build and later maintain all of the special instruments required to monitor nuclear