Making of the Atomic Bomb

  523. Psychometricians: e.g., Eiduson (1962), Goodrich et al. (1951), Roe (1952) and Terman (1955).

  524. IQ scores: cf. Roe (1952), p. 24.

  525. “He is . . . his nature”: ibid., p. 22.

  526. A psychological examination: Eiduson (1962).

  527. “their fathers . . . knew them”: ibid., p. 65.

  528. “rigid . . . reserved”: ibid., p. 22.

  529. “shy, lonely . . . or politics”: Terman (1955), p. 29.

  530. a fatherly science teacher: cf. Goodrich et al. (1951), p. 17.

  531. “masterfulness . . . dignity”: ibid.

  532. “It would . . . their students”: ibid.

  533. Ernest Orlando Lawrence: biographical details from Alvarez (1970), Childs (1968) and Davis (1968).

  534. “almost . . . mathematical thought”: Alvarez (1970), p. 253.

  535. “it seemed . . . atomic nucleus”: Lawrence (1951), p. 430.

  536. “the tedious . . . electron volts”: Alvarez (1970), p. 260.

  537. “In his . . . after night”: ibid., p. 261.

  538. “This new . . . arrangement”: Lawrence (1951), p. 431.

  539. “It struck . . . magnetic field”: Alvarez (1970), p. 261.

  540. “Oh, that . . . your own”: quoted in Davis (1968), p. 19.

  541. “I’m going . . . famous!”: quoted in Childs (1968), p. 140.

  542. a battered gray Chrysler: cf. Smith and Weiner (1980), p. 135.

  543. “unbelievable vitality . . . the opposite”: quoted in Childs (1968), p. 143.

  544. “The intensity . . . was before”: quoted in Davis (1968), p. 38.

  545. “having a . . . about 300”: Lawrence and Livingston (1932), p. 32.

  546. “Assuming then . . . do this”: ibid., p. 34.

  547. Oppenheimer told a friend: cf. Davis (1968), p. 23.

  548. “men of . . . broad intuition”: Rabi (1969), p. 7.

  549. the tunnel effect: cf. Bethe (1968), p. 393: “This work led him on to a treatment of the ionization of the hydrogen atom by electric fields, probably the first paper describing the penetration of a potential barrier.”

  550. dying suns: e.g. Oppenheimer and Snyder (1939).

  551. “You put . . . know peace”: Smith and Weiner (1980), pp. 155-156.

  552. “Interested to . . . the circumstances”: quoted in Childs (1968), p. 174.

  553. “uncommon sensitivity . . . of thinking”: Eiduson (1962), p. 105-106.

  554. “Were this . . . such fantasying”: ibid., p. 106.

  555. “This discovery . . . in him”: Pais (1982), p. 253.

  556. “But if . . . about them”: quoted in Rozental (1967), p. 139.

  557. “And Bohr . . . not quite’ ”: Oppenheimer (1963), I, p. 3.

  558. The Bakerian Lecture: “Nuclear constitution of atoms” in Rutherford (1965), p. 14ff.

  559. “the possible . . . intense field”: ibid., p. 34.

  560. James Chadwick: biographical details in Massey and Feather (1976). Cf. also Chadwick’s various recollections.

  561. “was hardly . . . of Moseley”: Massey and Feather (1976), p. 50.

  562. “But also . . . Soldiers’ ”: Chadwick (1954), p. 443.

  563. “Before the . . . neutral particle”: Chadwick OHI, AIP, pp. 35-36.

  564. “And so . . . only occasionally”: ibid., p. 36.

  565. “It was . . . disposal”: Oliphant (1972), p. 67.

  566. “dour and . . . became apparent”: ibid., p. 68.

  567. “to conceal . . . gruff façade”: quoted in Wilson (1975), p. 57.

  568. “He had . . . chuckle”: Massey and Feather (1976), p. 66.

  569. “the physics . . . noisy”: ibid., p. 12.

  570. he said later: paraphrased in ibid., p. 15.

  571. “were so . . . of alchemy”: Chadwick (1964), p. 159.

  572. “passed through . . . be found”: Chadwick (1954), p. 445.

  573. “the problem . . . to believe”: ibid., p. 444.

  574. “was a . . . really important”: James Chadwick OHI, AIP, p. 49.

  575. “We are . . . physics!”: Snow (1967), p. 3.

  576. “We are . . . complex atoms”: Rutherford (1965), p. 181.

  577. the scintillation method: this discussion follows Feather (1964), esp. p. 136ff.

  578. “He found . . . while counting!”: Massey and Feather (1976), p. 19.

  579. “The loss . . . of them”: Eve (1939), p. 341.

  580. his armorial bearings: cf. illustration and description in ibid., p. 342.

  581. “a real . . . physicist”: Segrè (1980), p. 180.

  582. “I don’t . . . he did”: James Chadwick OHI, AIP, p. 70.

  583. “Indeed . . . element investigated”: Feather (1964), p. 138.

  584. “that the . . . backward direction”: James Chadwick OHI, AIP, p. 161.

  585. “And that . . . the neutron”: James Chadwick OHI, AIP, p. 71.

  586. “Of course . . . very much”: ibid.

  587. “together . . . in Paris”: Feather (1964), p. 142.

  588. “They fitted . . . hydrogenous material”: ibid., p. 140.

  589. “Not many . . . strange”: Chadwick (1964), p. 161.

  590. The radiation source: cf. photograph at Crowther (1974), p. 196.

  591. “For the . . . oscillograph record”: Feather (1964), p. 141.

  592. “the number . . . protons”: Chadwick (1932b), p. 695.

  593. “In this . . . were tested”: ibid.

  594. “Hydrogen . . . this way”: ibid., p. 696.

  595. “In general . . . of 1920”: ibid., p. 697.

  596. “It was . . . time”: James Chadwick OHI, AIP, p. 71.

  597. “But there . . . the letter”: ibid., p. 72.

  598. “To [Chadwick’s] . . . physicist”: Segrè (1980), p. 184.

  599. That Wednesday: the Kapitza Club traditionally met on Tuesday, but I take it that Chadwick finished the first intense phase of his work with the writing of his letter to Nature dated this day, Feb. 17, 1932. His remark about wanting to be chloroformed (see below) indicates he had not yet rested from his ten-day marathon.

  600. “a very . . . us all”: Oliphant (1972), p. 76.

  601. “one of . . . a fortnight”: Snow (1981), p. 35.

  602. “A beam . . . times faster”: Morrison (1951), p. 48.

  603. “the prehistory . . . nuclear physics”: Bethe OHI, AIP, p. 3.

  604. “the personification . . . experimentalist”: Gamow (1966), p. 213. The complete Faust text is translated here by Barbara Gamow.

  605. “The Neutron . . . you agree?: ibid., p. 213.

  606. “That which . . . heart in”: ibid., p. 214.

  607. “Now a . . . along!”: ibid.

  Chapter 7: Exodus

  608. “Antisemitism . . . is violent”: Nathan and Norden (1960), p. 37

  609. “A new . . . Newton”: Pais (1982), Plate II.

  610. Nobel Prize nominations: cf. ibid., p. 502ff.

  611. “made . . . beyond Newton”: quoted in ibid., p. 508.

  612. “a massive . . . muscled”: Snow (1967a), p. 52.

  613. “A powerful . . . slipped off”: ibid., p. 49.

  614. “to look . . . his image”: Erikson, “Psychoanalytic Reflections on Einstein’s Centenary,” p. 157, in Holton and Elkana (1982).

  615. “dressed in . . . his eyes”: Infeld (1941), p. 92.

  616. “finally the . . . structure”: quoted in Pais (1982), p. 239. The paper is A. Einstein, PAW (1915), p. 844.

  617. “One of . . . scientific ideas”: quoted in Clark (1971), p. 290.

  618. popular lectures: cf. Feuer (1982), p. 82.

  619. disrupted lecture: cf. Pais (1982), p. 315ff.

  620. “said that . . . German spirit”: quoted in Clark (1971), p. 318.

  621. Einstein mistakenly thought: cf. Einstein to Arnold Sommerfeld, Sept. 6, 1920: “I attached too much importance to that attack on me, in that I believed that a great part
of our physicists took part in it. So I really thought for two days that I would ‘desert’ as you call it. But soon there came reflection.” Quoted in ibid., p. 323ff.

  622. “ ‘My Answer . . . disposition, then”: quoted in ibid., p. 319.

  623. “Everyone . . . my article”: quoted in Pais (1982), p. 316.

  624. “miracle . . . deeply hidden”: quoted in ibid., p. 37.

  625. “If you . . . the things”: quoted in Clark (1971), p. 469.

  626. “Through the . . . social environment”: quoted in ibid., p. 36.

  627. His father stumbled: for a careful reconstruction of this period in Einstein’s life cf. ibid., p. 39ff.

  628. “Politically . . . my youth”: quoted in ibid., p. 315.

  629. medically unfit: Pais (1982), p. 45n.

  630. “victorious child”: Holton and Elkana (1982), p. 151.

  631. “I sometimes . . . grown up”: quoted in Clark (1971), p. 27.

  632. E = mc2: the paper is A. Einstein, Jahrb. Rad. Elektr. 4, 411 (1907).

  633. “It is . . . for radium”: quoted in Pais (1982), p. 149.

  634. “The line . . . the nose”: revised from ibid., p. 148ff.

  635. “like men . . . postage stamp”: quoted in Holton and Elkana (1982), p. 326.

  636. “great work . . . were slender”: quoted in Clark (1971), p. 252.

  637. “I begin . . . younger years”: c. 1915, revised from Pais (1982), p. 243.

  638. “were . . . ambivalent”: quoted in ibid., p. 315.

  639. “a new . . . eternity”: quoted in Clark (1971), p. 473.

  640. “first discovered . . . and dispersion”: quoted in ibid., p. 475.

  641. “undignified . . . annoyed”: quoted in Pais (1982), p. 314.

  642. “in a . . . anti-Semitism also”: quoted in Young-Bruehl (1982), p. 92.

  643. “I am . . . in Germany”: quoted in Feuer (1982), p. xxvi.

  644. 54,000 marks: deJonge (1978), p. 240.

  645. “I was . . . years ago”: Roberts (1938), p. 265.

  646. “These points . . . Wittenberg!”: quoted in Toland (1976), p. 96.

  647. refers to Jewry more frequently: cf. Hitler (1971), index.

  648. “no lovers . . . of decomposition”: ibid., passim.

  649. The sun shines in: cf. photograph of Hitler’s cell in Toland (1976), between pp. 172-173.

  650. lederhosen: cf. photograph of Hitler at Landsberg, ibid.

  651. “I often . . . magic formula!”: quoted in ibid., p. 64.

  652. “If at . . . in vain”: Hitler (1971), p. 679.

  653. The Jewish people: sources for this discussion include Arendt (1973), Bauer (1982), Cohn (1967), Dawidowicz (1967, 1975), Laqueur (1965), Litvinoff (1976), Mendelsohn (1970), Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz (1980), Parkes (1964), Patai (1977), The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion (1934), Rosenberg (1970), Veblen (1919), Weizmann (1949).

  654. The fantasy of Jews: cf. Cohn (1967), p. 254.

  655. “the enemies of Christ”: Parkes (1964) attributes this canard to Catherine II in 1762. The Encyclopedia Judaica, however, ascribes it to the Czarina Elizabeth Petrovna in 1742. Whether mother-or daughter-in-law made the statement, it clearly reflects imperial opinion of the Jews at the time of the Polish partition.

  656. Edward Teller’s grandmother: interview with Herbert York, La Jolla, Calif., June 27, 1983.

  657. “The Jews . . . a citizen”: Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz (1980), p. 104.

  658. “Jewish disorders”: quoted in Levin (1977), p. 18.

  659. Jews to the U.S.: for annual numbers cf. Mendes-Flohr and Reinharz (1980), p. 374.

  660. “I have . . . of course”: reported by Herman Rauschning, quoted in Cohn (1967), p. 60.

  661. “We owe . . . by heart”: quoted in Arendt (1973), p. 360.

  662. “At eleven . . . the accursed”: Cohn (1967), p. 34.

  663. “What I . . . the goyim”: Protocols (1934), p. 142.

  664. “produced . . . our slaves”: ibid., p. 175ff.

  665. “The principal . . . the Papacy”: ibid., p. 193.

  666. “It will . . . a merit”: ibid., p. 205.

  667. Protocols plagiarized: the best discussions of the bizarre history of the Protocols are Cohn (1967) and Laqueur (1965).

  668. “gave them . . . state itself”: Arendt (1973), p. 39.

  669. “Thus the . . . larger scale”: ibid., p. 360.

  670. “Do you . . . need them”: Richard Breitling was the journalist. Quoted in Beyerchen (1977), p. 10.

  671. meeting with Goebbels: cf. Goebbels’ diary entry quoted in Dawidowicz (1975), p. 68.

  672. “I have . . . couldn’t happen”: quoted in Blumberg and Owens (1976), p. 51.

  673. “I didn’t . . . to change”: Otto Frisch OHI, AIP, p. 12.

  674. “Civil . . . must retire”: quoted in Dawidowicz (1975), p. 77.

  675. “descended from . . . grandparents”: quoted in ibid., p. 78.

  676. a quarter of the physicists: Beyerchen (1977), p. 44.

  677. Some 1,600 scholars: ibid.

  678. “I decided . . . my life”: quoted in Clark (1971), p. 539.

  679. “We sat . . . to America”: quoted in ibid., p. 543.

  680. “Ich bin . . . dafür”: quoted in ibid., p. 544.

  681. fifteen thousand: according to Pais (1982), p. 450. Clark (1971), p. 544, has $16,000.

  682. “Turn around . . . again”: quoted in Pais (1982), p. 318.

  683. “recommended . . . me also”: Eugene Wigner OHI, AIP, p. 2.

  684. “There was . . . it well”: ibid., p. 6.

  685. Leo Szilard to Eugene Wigner: Oct. 8, 1932, Egon Weiss personal papers, USMA Library, West Point, N.Y. Trans. Edda König.

  686. “close . . . 1933”: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 14.

  687. “On entering . . . up here”: Elsasser (1978), p. 161.

  688. numbers of dismissals: Beyerchen (1977), p. 44.

  689. Bethe’s dismissal: cf. Bernstein (1980), p. 34.

  690. “Geiger . . . personal level”: ibid., p. 33.

  691. “He wrote . . . nothing”: ibid., p. 35.

  692. Bethe at 27: telephone interview with Rose Bethe, Jan. 18, 1984.

  693. “I was . . . whatever”: interview with Hans Bethe, Ithaca, N.Y., Sept. 12, 1982.

  694. “Sommerfeld . . . come back”: Bernstein (1980), p. 35.

  695. “His early . . . mechanics”: Wigner (1969), p. 2.

  696. “It was . . . I could”: interview with Edward Teller, Stanford, Calif., June 19, 1982.

  697. “an old German nationalist”: quoted in Blumberg and Owens (1976), p. 49.

  698. “I really . . . in Germany”: ibid.

  699. “quite shocked . . . the line”: Frisch (1979), p. 52.

  700. “very disappointed . . . back to”: Otto Frisch OHI, AIP, p. 14.

  701. “To me . . . I felt”: Rozental (1967), p. 137.

  702. “Stern . . . Blackett had”: Frisch OHI, AIP, p. 14.

  703. “If physics . . . dictator”: quoted in “Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett,” Biog. Mem. F.R.S. 21, p. 22.

  704. “Lise Meitner . . . to you”: Frisch OHI, AIP, p. 12ff.

  705. Bohr persuaded him: so Franck told Alice Kimball Smith: Smith, “The Politics of Control—The Role of the Chicago Scientists.” Symposium on the 40th Anniversary of the First Chain Reaction, University of Chicago, Dec. 2, 1982. Franck’s daughters have emphasized to the contrary that his decision to resign in protest was made “for himself and by himself and nobody else had any part in making it”: Beyerchen (1977), p. 16; p. 215, n. 8.

  706. Max Born’s reinstatement: according to Beyerchen (1977), p. 21.

  707. “We decided . . . of May”: Born (1971), p. 113.

  708. “Ehrenfest . . . young ones”: ibid., p. 113ff.

  709. “the old . . . for it”: Shils (1964). Shils tells the Vienna story here at length and notes that he heard it not from Szilard but from “other persons.” It wa
s, he writes, “absolutely characteristic of Szilard to launch a campaign of aid and claim no credit later for himself.”

  710. “that as . . . do something”: ibid., p. 38.

  711. the major U.S. effort: cf. Duggan and Drury (1948) and Weiner (1969).

  712. “a long . . . interview”: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 32.

  713. “university of exiles”: Born (1971), p. 114.

  714. In Switzerland: Szilard reports these activities in a letter to Beveridge dated May 23, 1933. Leo Szilard Papers.

  715. “sympathetic . . . German scientists”: Szilard to Beveridge, ibid.

  716. “he proposed . . . them out”: Frisch (1979), p. 53.

  717. Benjamin Liebowitz: for biographical data cf. “A memorial service for BENJAMIN LIEBOWITZ,” Egon Weiss personal papers, West Point.

  718. “It is . . . Germany”: Liebowitz to Ernest P. Boas, May 5, 1933. Szilard Papers.

  719. “dismissed . . . stronger”: Weart and Szilard (1978), p. 36.

  720. “rather tired . . . the parties”: ibid., p. 35.

  721. Locker-Lampson: cf. Clark (1971), p. 566ff.

  722. “talking . . . goats”: quoted in ibid., p. 603.

  723. “He did . . . forward”: Moon (1974), p. 23.

  724. British appointments: Bentwich (1953), p. 13, puts this number at 155.

  725. American contributions: ibid., p. 19: “The total American financial contribution by 1935 equalled that of the rest of the world.”

  726. Emergency Committee arrivals: cf. Duggan and Drury (1948), p. 25.

  727. one hundred physicists: Weiner (1969), p. 217.

  728. “is a . . . distraction”: Nathan and Norden (1960), p. 245.

  729. “fell in . . . to him”: Wigner OHI, AIP, p. 5.

  730. “large and . . . atmosphere”: Ulam (1976), p. 69ff.

  731. “I used . . . the climate”: ibid., p. 158.

  732. “was astonished . . . and sang”: Infeld (1941), p. 245.

  733. Hans Bethe walked: Hans Bethe OHI, AIP.

  734. “When I . . . me away”: Mendelssohn (1973), p. 164.

  Chapter 8: Stirring and Digging

  735. Stirring and Digging: cf. Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning: “Surely to alchemy this right is due, that it may be compared to the husbandman whereof Aesop makes the fable: that, when he died, told his sons that he had left unto them gold buried underground in his vineyard; and they digged all over the ground, and gold they found none; but by reason of their stirring and digging the mould about the roots of their vines, they had a great vintage the year following: so assuredly the search and stir to make gold hath brought to light a great number of good and fruitful inventions and experiments.” Quoted in Seaborg (1958), p. xxi.