This is a repository copy of For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay: Enrico Fermi’s Patent and the US Atomic Energy Program, 1938-1953. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/4609/ Article: Turchetti, Simone (2006) For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay: Enrico Fermi’s Patent and the US Atomic Energy Program, 1938-1953. Isis, 97 (1). pp. 1-28. ISSN 0021-1753 https://doi.org/10.1086/501097 Reuse See Attached Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing
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[email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ “For Slow Neutrons, Slow Pay” Enrico Fermi’s Patent and the U.S. Atomic Energy Program, 1938–1953 By Simone Turchetti* ABSTRACT This essay focuses on the history of one of the “atomic patents.” The patent, which de- scribed a process to slow down neutrons in nuclear reactions, was the result of experimental research conducted in the 1930s by Enrico Fermi and his group at the Institute of Physics, University of Rome. The value of the patented process became clear during World War II, as it was involved in most of the military and industrial applications of atomic energy. This ignited a controversy between Fermi and U.S. government representatives over roy- alties to be paid for use of the process during and after the war. The controversy sheds new light on the role that the management of patents played in the context of the Man- hattan Project and in the postwar U.S.