What Life Was Like While Working on the Manhattan Project
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Date: 2022-12-29
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Comments and reviews: 20
Lorien077
I actually struggle with guilt by proxy.
My grandmother on my mom's side worked as a security officer on site, along with more uh active roles in WWII. (She once had to ditch a sabotaged airplane, couldn't bring herself to jump, and Admiral Nimitz had to give her a push while she was on bodyguard duty for example) She was exposed to enough radiation through the accidents that according to feds at the time she was sterile. Surprise My mom happened.
Honestly she was a remarkable woman, and while I'm sad my family contributed to this weapon I'm more sad that I never got to really meet her. Cigarettes took her out when I was a toddler. So don't smoke please, cigarettes are deadly than. assassins, nuclear accidents, falling airplanes, being shot at, and whatever else she did. A lot of it was classified when I left the states still.
But anyway her story and the bigger story of the Manhattan Project was why I diverted from Nuclear Engineering as a teen. :X I just don't trust the US federal government with nuclear anything. Most governments, honestly. ;;; ;;
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I actually struggle with guilt by proxy.
My grandmother on my mom's side worked as a security officer on site, along with more uh active roles in WWII. (She once had to ditch a sabotaged airplane, couldn't bring herself to jump, and Admiral Nimitz had to give her a push while she was on bodyguard duty for example) She was exposed to enough radiation through the accidents that according to feds at the time she was sterile. Surprise My mom happened.
Honestly she was a remarkable woman, and while I'm sad my family contributed to this weapon I'm more sad that I never got to really meet her. Cigarettes took her out when I was a toddler. So don't smoke please, cigarettes are deadly than. assassins, nuclear accidents, falling airplanes, being shot at, and whatever else she did. A lot of it was classified when I left the states still.
But anyway her story and the bigger story of the Manhattan Project was why I diverted from Nuclear Engineering as a teen. :X I just don't trust the US federal government with nuclear anything. Most governments, honestly. ;;; ;;
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Professor
You didn't mention the most poignant part of Oppenheimer's speech, I am the destroyer of worlds'. There is a school of thought that the two bombs could've been dropped over the sea near Japan causing a tidal wave and perhaps incinerating fewer Japanese civilians. I was told in school that the military wanted to see the affect on an urban setting. I can believe that. The premise for the build was to get the bomb before the Germans did. I'd like you to cover if that was a real initiative or added later. I recall we bombed Bagdad in part to see the effectiveness of missiles in a densely populated urban area. I think military are always trying to up their game. It was horrifying in the 90's to hear comedians frame the bombing of and ancient and populated city as Like a video game and how proud they were we could hit the targets. When it comes to war less is more.
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You didn't mention the most poignant part of Oppenheimer's speech, I am the destroyer of worlds'. There is a school of thought that the two bombs could've been dropped over the sea near Japan causing a tidal wave and perhaps incinerating fewer Japanese civilians. I was told in school that the military wanted to see the affect on an urban setting. I can believe that. The premise for the build was to get the bomb before the Germans did. I'd like you to cover if that was a real initiative or added later. I recall we bombed Bagdad in part to see the effectiveness of missiles in a densely populated urban area. I think military are always trying to up their game. It was horrifying in the 90's to hear comedians frame the bombing of and ancient and populated city as Like a video game and how proud they were we could hit the targets. When it comes to war less is more.
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Bobbie
Thank you for this. My Grandfather was one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project. My mother and the rest of his family stayed in Pennsylvania, where they were settled. My mother was very young, but remembers her parents telling her that her father was working in New York City. Toward the end of the war, my Uncle turned 18 and was drafted. My Grandfather came home to see him off. My Grandmother was understandably fearful for her son. My Grandfather comforted her by telling her not to worry, that it would all be over soon. Four days later the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and true to my Grandfathers words, the war was very soon over and my Uncle served his time without seeing any battle action.
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Thank you for this. My Grandfather was one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project. My mother and the rest of his family stayed in Pennsylvania, where they were settled. My mother was very young, but remembers her parents telling her that her father was working in New York City. Toward the end of the war, my Uncle turned 18 and was drafted. My Grandfather came home to see him off. My Grandmother was understandably fearful for her son. My Grandfather comforted her by telling her not to worry, that it would all be over soon. Four days later the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and true to my Grandfathers words, the war was very soon over and my Uncle served his time without seeing any battle action.
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Jason
My grandmother's father abandoned them when she was a girl. We never knew him. Growing up she told all of us that he worked on the Manhattan Project to build the Bomb and as a result of some top secret thing - had to leave and never come back. When I became an adult I was privately told by family members that none of that was true - my grandmother could never accept the reality that her daddy would just run out on her mother and children, so she created a delusional fantasy that allowed her to accept it. She truly believed every bit of it was real, but the family knew that the man was just a scoundrel.
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My grandmother's father abandoned them when she was a girl. We never knew him. Growing up she told all of us that he worked on the Manhattan Project to build the Bomb and as a result of some top secret thing - had to leave and never come back. When I became an adult I was privately told by family members that none of that was true - my grandmother could never accept the reality that her daddy would just run out on her mother and children, so she created a delusional fantasy that allowed her to accept it. She truly believed every bit of it was real, but the family knew that the man was just a scoundrel.
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Lando
I live as the crow flys 4 no more than 5 miles from Y-12 in Oak Ridge and 10ish to drive from my house to frist gate.
TBH sometimes I sit and think my parents lived this close never knew how close they were to part of the Manhattan Project I live in Knoxville but off solway Rd. Which is 2 minutes half mile from the Anderson county line which county Oak Ridge is in where Y-12 is scary to think about what if something happened and it blew up and the nuclear fission actually enacted the fission they would've been dead withing a couple weeks or 2-4ish months before radiation killed them
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I live as the crow flys 4 no more than 5 miles from Y-12 in Oak Ridge and 10ish to drive from my house to frist gate.
TBH sometimes I sit and think my parents lived this close never knew how close they were to part of the Manhattan Project I live in Knoxville but off solway Rd. Which is 2 minutes half mile from the Anderson county line which county Oak Ridge is in where Y-12 is scary to think about what if something happened and it blew up and the nuclear fission actually enacted the fission they would've been dead withing a couple weeks or 2-4ish months before radiation killed them
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Doug
I have read extensively on the Manhattan Project and have never heard that that staff working on the project used false names. It wouldn't have worked anyway - the key scientists already knew each other. The other statement made in the video that I question is the statement about the radio station being picked up beyond Los Alamos. It that happened, it wasn't by someone very far away as the power of the station was extremely limited to prevent just such an occurrence. As for the punch. you got that one right! 200 proof ethyl alcohol straight from the labs!
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I have read extensively on the Manhattan Project and have never heard that that staff working on the project used false names. It wouldn't have worked anyway - the key scientists already knew each other. The other statement made in the video that I question is the statement about the radio station being picked up beyond Los Alamos. It that happened, it wasn't by someone very far away as the power of the station was extremely limited to prevent just such an occurrence. As for the punch. you got that one right! 200 proof ethyl alcohol straight from the labs!
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Dominic
I've been there a ton of times and it's such a trip. I think my first time was in the mid '90's, and it really was a nothing little place. Last time was in 2019, and God has it grown! Funny thing is if you drive up from the I25 side you just drive in. One year I drove there from the other side, via Valles Caldera, and I had to pass through security gates and show my passport. quite funny when you consider the other side required no such thing.
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I've been there a ton of times and it's such a trip. I think my first time was in the mid '90's, and it really was a nothing little place. Last time was in 2019, and God has it grown! Funny thing is if you drive up from the I25 side you just drive in. One year I drove there from the other side, via Valles Caldera, and I had to pass through security gates and show my passport. quite funny when you consider the other side required no such thing.
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1984Porthos
We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. ' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
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We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita. Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. ' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.
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Dee
Funny that if you put a bunch of highly educated people together they would do things to bend rules or, of course, make their own alcohol.
Reminds of today. I have friends who work at Intel and Toyota, but none of them will comment on what they are working on. Even when I confront them with news articles, their reply is no comment.
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Funny that if you put a bunch of highly educated people together they would do things to bend rules or, of course, make their own alcohol.
Reminds of today. I have friends who work at Intel and Toyota, but none of them will comment on what they are working on. Even when I confront them with news articles, their reply is no comment.
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Tawny
My husband's grandmother was a very fast typist that worked for city hall. The government enlisted her into typing the schematics for the bomb. The family only found out when her son, my father in law, enlisted in the air force and was granted a ridiculously high level of clearance for someone who just joined.
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My husband's grandmother was a very fast typist that worked for city hall. The government enlisted her into typing the schematics for the bomb. The family only found out when her son, my father in law, enlisted in the air force and was granted a ridiculously high level of clearance for someone who just joined.
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STEVE
Oppenheimer was the man who organized the whole operation, succeeded, then was black balled during the Commie hunts of the '50s. America has a way of treating it's patriots in negative manners once their use was fulfilled. If it weren't for him, the A Bomb might of been years of development.
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Oppenheimer was the man who organized the whole operation, succeeded, then was black balled during the Commie hunts of the '50s. America has a way of treating it's patriots in negative manners once their use was fulfilled. If it weren't for him, the A Bomb might of been years of development.
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coxmosia1
I met one of the men who had worked there, when I was in my late 30's, early 40's? He was in his early 70's. He said something very strange to me. He said that 'we had met before. Blew me out the water as I wasn't even around when these people were working on this project.
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I met one of the men who had worked there, when I was in my late 30's, early 40's? He was in his early 70's. He said something very strange to me. He said that 'we had met before. Blew me out the water as I wasn't even around when these people were working on this project.
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anna
Iv heard a lot of the scientists felt sickened after seeing footage of the bomb. Every time I read or watch about nuclear weapons im utterly terrified an intrigued.
Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds
- j. Robert Oppenheimer
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Iv heard a lot of the scientists felt sickened after seeing footage of the bomb. Every time I read or watch about nuclear weapons im utterly terrified an intrigued.
Now I become death, the destroyer of worlds
- j. Robert Oppenheimer
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Gromsterino
It didnt end the war, Japan were trying to surrender before they dropped the bombs due to the USSR declaring war on Japan. the US refused because they wanted to test out the weapon, not kidding. It was a war crime, simple as that.
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It didnt end the war, Japan were trying to surrender before they dropped the bombs due to the USSR declaring war on Japan. the US refused because they wanted to test out the weapon, not kidding. It was a war crime, simple as that.
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Carol
Couldn't the people in the project get magazines? I've heard Abwher figured out SOMETHING was going on in Los Alamos by determining that a strangely large number of sibscrptions for the SF mag Amazing Stories. John Bezpiaty writing.
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Couldn't the people in the project get magazines? I've heard Abwher figured out SOMETHING was going on in Los Alamos by determining that a strangely large number of sibscrptions for the SF mag Amazing Stories. John Bezpiaty writing.
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Randy
I wouldn't work on it due to me being opposed to Nuclear war and weapons. Also, Japan had all ready surrendered to Stalin, that's why they bombed them. It was a war crime not something that they needed to end the war.
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I wouldn't work on it due to me being opposed to Nuclear war and weapons. Also, Japan had all ready surrendered to Stalin, that's why they bombed them. It was a war crime not something that they needed to end the war.
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your
Yikes I feel bad for my great grandfather for having to live like this. he was working as a chemical engineer on the Manhattan project he had a wife and i think he even had a daughter at that time.
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Yikes I feel bad for my great grandfather for having to live like this. he was working as a chemical engineer on the Manhattan project he had a wife and i think he even had a daughter at that time.
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Maret
Please do stories about women scientists. I have been fascinated by physicist and chemist Leona Woods who worked on The Manhattan Project after growing up on a farm in what now suburban Chicago.
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Please do stories about women scientists. I have been fascinated by physicist and chemist Leona Woods who worked on The Manhattan Project after growing up on a farm in what now suburban Chicago.
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Jackie
Human beings can - do literally make virtually anything work in their minds.
How do you quantify the immeasurable suffering that Japanese people suffered? -- and for decades
after?
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Human beings can - do literally make virtually anything work in their minds.
How do you quantify the immeasurable suffering that Japanese people suffered? -- and for decades
after?
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Jason
I feel so bad for J. Robert Oppenheimer. Once he saw what he created, he became a broken man. I have become the destroyer of worlds. he was the heretic and savior of the world.
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I feel so bad for J. Robert Oppenheimer. Once he saw what he created, he became a broken man. I have become the destroyer of worlds. he was the heretic and savior of the world.
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