They used 430,000,000 troy ounces of silver because copper was in short supply due to WW 2.
Almost all of it was given back to the Treasury dept when they stopped using the Calutrons to make enriched uranium. Only 1/3,600,000th of the silver was not returned.
‘Young man, you may think of silver in tons, but the Treasury will always think of silver in troy ounces.’
Troy ounces are only used for precious metals now, the rest of use the avoirdupois system except for people who are on the metric system.
Exactly what I was going to say.
that amount of silver today would be worth around $6,450,000,000
Oak Ridge is very different from other towns because it started as an Army base. There is no central downtown but they have a shopping center they call downtown. Most of it was no longer fenced off from outsiders starting in 1947. There are still sites there that are not open , mainly the Y-12 site.
My brother was trying to sell them some parts and they met him at a building outside the gate.
Hell if you make a wrong turn and even go to the booth (instead of the visitor lot) you’ll meet a lot of people with guns and get your car searched*.
I saw that photo of the calutron operators in a history I’d read of the Manhattan project. It also mentioned how they outperformed the scientists and engineers who’d designed it and ironed out the kinks.
A roommate of mine worked on a very unusual project at Oak Ridge National Labs which does mostly standard research, not military research. They had to develop a plan to ship nerve gas from Kentucky to a plant on a small island in the Pacific ocean so it could be destroyed. Once the nerve gas was destroyed the plant was removed too.
They moved the nerve gas by truck at night to an airport and then it was flown to the island.
BTW this OP is part of why I visit this place. Thank you for posting. Every chemist has used mass spec for analysis, but the idea of * preparative* MS just boggles me.
as the article states 95% of the Oak Ridge people did not know what the project was for. Only knew it was for the war. They called it tubealloy rather than uranium.
Everyone interested in this subject should read Richard Rhodes excellent “The Making of the Atomic Bomb."
I was actually just going to ask about books, thanks.
I suddenly need to know something about fission for work, so I have homework to do
Fantastic book. In fact I can see my copy from where I’m sitting. I keep thinking I’ll read it again, but I’m afraid I’d get lost in the physics now.
He also wrote Dark Sun about the making of the hydrogen bomb.
Also this book is about the women who worked at Oak Ridge
Genral Groves’ Now It Can Be Told.
Hell I’ll read 'em all.
But I can also start anew thread if OP doesn’t want this one sidetracked.
Silver was used for wire in the core windings in the cyclotron, available copper was being used for shell casings. I recall that being discussed in Groves’ book.
Here isa link.
the movie Fat man and little boy was pretty good, Paul Newman starred as Gen. Groves.