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The Manhattan Project Heritage Preservation Association, Inc. "Preserving, Exhibiting, Interpreting and Teaching the History of the Manhattan Project" |
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Manhattan Project History
Early Government Support
The Uranium Committee
Dr. Lyman J. Briggs - Dir. Bureau of Standards Lt. Col. Keith F. Adamson - Army Representative Cdr. Gilbert C. Hoover - Navy RepresentativeOctober 1939
| "If I had known that the Germans would not succeed in constructing the atom bomb, I would never have lifted a finger." - Albert Einstein |
| In October of 1939, as he had promised
Albert Einstein, President Roosevelt established the Uranium
Committee, which met for the first time on October 21st.
Lyman J. Briggs, director of the National Bureau of Standards, was chosen to head up this important advisory committee on uranium. This committee, which included both civilian and military representation, took up the task of evaluating where the United States stood with regards to uranium research and to, more importantly, recommend an appropriate role for the federal government. In one of its first, and most important actions, the Committee recommended that limited funding be authorized for research on uranium isotope separation as well as Enrico Fermi's and Leo Szilard's work on nuclear chain reactions at Columbia University in New York City. The work of the committee gained momentum in April of 1940 when it was learned that the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany had undertaken an extensive research program involving uranium. NOTE: The first meeting of the Advisory Committee on Uranium met on October 21, 1939 - a Saturday. In attendance were Lyman Briggs; Briggs' assistant; Adamson for the Army; Hoover for the Navy; Alexander Sachs; Leo Szilard; Eugene Wigner; Edward Teller; and Richard Roberts. Teller represented Enrico Fermi who refused to attend because of a dispute with the Navy Dept. A little more than week later, on November 1st, the Uranium Committee issued a report to President Roosevelt, stating among other things: "If the reaction turns out to be explosive in character, it would provide a possible source of bombs with a destructiveness vastly greater than anything now known" and "we recommend adequate support for a thorough investigation." As verified by Roosevelt's aide, "Pa" Watson, the President read the report and "wished to keep it on file." There it remained for several months, well into 1940.
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