History column: Sheboygan supplied scientists for Manhattan Project
Seven locals worked on atomic bomb.
History column: Sheboygan supplied scientists for Manhattan Project Seven locals worked on atomic bomb. Check out this story on sheboyganpress.com: http://shebpr.es/1oCj3ij
Beth Dippel Published 9:40 p.m. CT Aug. 15, 2014
The Aug. 24, 1945, Sheboygan Press published a story with photos about seven local scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project.
Sixty-nine years ago on Aug. 6, 1945, at 8:16 a.m., an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, dropped the world's first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, ushering in the Atomic Age.
Three days later a second bomb exploded above Nagasaki. A third bomb was ready for release had Japan not surrendered to end World War II.
This was the first time that most Americans knew of the country's great secret, the Manhattan Project. But, in reality, the nuclear age began years earlier. The deadly bombs, nicknamed Little Boy and Fat Man, were the products of years of scientific research done clandestinely.
By 1939, the physics community had good reason to fear the Germans. The discovery of nuclear fission in Germany and the fact that the Nazis were stockpiling uranium from captured Czech mines could mean only one thing: Germany was developing an atomic bomb.
Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, preeminent physicists living in the United States, agreed that President Roosevelt must be informed of the dangers of atomic technology in the hands of the Axis powers.
Einstein penned a letter to President Roosevelt urging the development of an atomic research program. Even though Roosevelt was only lukewarm to the idea, in late 1941 the American effort to design and build an atomic bomb received its code name — the Manhattan Project.
Headquarters for the project was at 270 Broadway in New York City, where more than 5,000 people worked on the project in from 1942-43 in a skyscraper hidden in plain sight right across from City Hall, ergo the name Manhattan.
Though it eventually included over 30 research and production sites, the Manhattan Project was carried out in three main cities: Hanford, Wash., Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
After Fermi's staff of physicists produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction at the University of Chicago in 1942, the project progressed at breakneck speed. Nuclear facilities were built at Oak Ridge (uranium) and Hanford (plutonium). The main assembly plant was built at Los Alamos and led by Robert Oppenheimer.
In the search for manpower and brains, government recruiters searched everywhere. The recruiters raided university faculties for Ph.D.s and graduate students. At one time, there was a greater concentration of Ph.D.s working on the Manhattan Project than anywhere else on Earth. Almost all were under 40 years of age.
After the final bill was tallied, nearly $2 billion was spent on research and development of the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project employed more than 120,000 Americans, including seven scientists from Sheboygan County.
The Sheboygan Press proudly announced their participation in an Aug. 24, 1945, article.
Lyle Brehm of Sheboygan was a mechanical engineer employed by General Electric who worked in the Oak Ridge plant. Brehm commented that they carried bits of photographic film in their pockets to show the amount of radiation they were exposed to and until the destruction of Hiroshima they had no idea of the ultimate objective.
Ward Schaap of Oostburg was a graduate of Wheaton College in Illinois and a research chemist at the University of Chicago and then Oak Ridge.
John Lohmann, a graduate of Sheboygan Central High, majored in chemistry at UW-Madison. He worked at Kohler Co. and A.O. Smith as a chemist until his induction into the U.S. Army in 1941, where he worked at the Edgewood arsenal in Baltimore and finally in advanced electrical engineering at Oak Ridge.
Simeon and Carol Maas Galginaitis were both graduates of Central High and Ripon College. He was a physicist and she a chemist. Both were recruited for Oak Ridge from Du Pont where they worked.
Dr. Roger Voskuyl of Cedar Grove, a professor of chemistry at Wheaton College, studied atomic theory at Columbia University and then the University of Chicago where he helped perfect the atomic bomb.
Dr. Eugene Brimm, another Central High grad, received his degree in chemistry from UW-Madison in 1936. He ended up as a research chemist at Linde Air Products.
The first nuclear test named Trinity took place in the desert outside Alamogordo, New Mexico. Everything was done in secret, but, New Mexicans were well aware that something extraordinary happened the morning of July 16, 1945. Windows were shattered 120 miles away in Silver City, and residents of Albuquerque, including a blind girl, more than 200 miles to the north, saw the bright light of the explosion and felt the shock waves moments later.
Fear among the scientists was palpable. Despite their best efforts, no one really knew what would happen or how powerful the blast would be. This was unfamiliar territory, an area with no prior experience.
Technicians at Los Alamos were astonished to hear their project's top physicist, Enrico Fermi, take side bets on whether they might ignite the entire atmosphere. Col. Groves, the West Point engineer in charge of the full project, told one of his engineers: "If the reactor blows up, jump in the middle of it and save yourself a lot of trouble."
Beth Dippel is executive director of the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center, 518 Water St., Sheboygan Falls; 920-467-4667; schrc.org.
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