15-3  Raymond L. Dujack

Graduated ASTP after V-J day and discharged in June 1946. Graduated MIT 1949 with S.B.(Economics and Physics). MSEE Columbia 1955. Worked in aerospace industry; telecommunications; investment banking; and Federal Communications Commission. Now 77 (in 2003)and happily retired, and very proud of my brief, negligible contribution to the Manhattan Project. As a trained infantryman before V-J Day, I never had the slightest doubt regarding our use of the weapon.

responsibilities:  Lab. technician working with the S.A.M. Laboratories group in Havemayer Hall on Columbia U. campus.

Lab technician working with chemists and chemical engineers in the S.A.M. Labs at Columbia. I constructed chemical apparatus and performed experiments. Constructed a large (3 x 6 foot) cylinder of galvanized iron and associated copper tubing feeder system which injected molten sodium into a gaseous environment. Boron-trifluouride maybe? Also spent hours operating mechanical sifter operating on unknown black powder.

contribution:  As a technician, I hadn't the slightest idea of what we were doing. And my contributions were negligible. I remember constructing a galvanized iron cylinder (3 ft. dia x 6 ft. length) and some copper tubing that fed into a nozzle inside the cylinder. I seem to remember that molten sodium was sprayed into the cylinder which contained a gas. Possibly Boron-trifluouride? I also spent interminable hours operating a mechanical sifter that operated on a black powder, whose identity was concealed from me.

Other than as stated in 14, above, my most notable contribution was to go out at noon to a deli on Amsterdam Ave, on the edge of the Columbia campus, to get sandwiches and sodas for the chemists and engineers.

experience:  A few times, there would be a leak of boron-trifluoride. Then we would have to exit the lab precipitously (both literally and metaphorically) via a sliding board that took us from Havemayer Hall (on the Columbia campus) to the front of Pupin Physics Labs. All this in our shirt sleeves in mid-winter.

stories:  During my brief 3 months on the Project, until I was inducted into the Army and sent to the infantry, I hadn't the slightest idea of what we were doing. I would ask my professional superiors, but to no avail. All of the chemicals, I used were identified only by code names. They would say, "Ray, please get me some X-3555" (or something like that). The only way I could identify sodium, was when I was cleaning out some copper tubing with a deposit inside. When it exploded, I knew it was metallic sodium. The security was so tight that we weren't allowed to wear exposed badges while on the campus. To enter the lab, in Havemayer Hall, we had to show a photo ID. This would be then taken from us and we would be given a photo badge to be worn on our outer garments. We were constantly warned not to tell any of our Columbia friends that we were working on a classified project.

Only when the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, did I figure out what we were working on.