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Never before and, more than
likely, never again will a nation with the resources of the United
States be so committed to a single purpose. Once the funding for
the Manhattan Project was authorized by President Franklin Roosevelt
in December 1942, the floodgates were opened on the largest
construction project in world history. In fact, more than fifty
years later, we, as a nation, would be hard-pressed to achieve similar
results.
As you will see as you
progress through this narrative, there was still much that was not
known. Decisions had to be made on the spur of the moment with
only sketchy facts to back them up. Also, traditional methods of
taking a process from the drawing table into the field had to be
abandoned in the interest of time. Thus, if three particular
options were available for a particular design or construction phase,
it was often necessary to work on all three, later abandoning two.
Another huge factor was
that American industry was being asked to design and manufacture
equipment that went way beyond the tolerances that anyone had
previously thought possible. From magnets to vacuum pumps, from
welding seams to sterile operating conditions, every new production
operation demanded new technology. Thus, many of the production
processes that are prevalent today had their origins in the Manhattan
Project.
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