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25002 Calutron Girls U.S. IN WWII MANHATTAN PROJECT BLIND SUCCESS The Women were encouraged to keep up the utmost secrecy. Despite “The Japanese attack on the “The Oakridge lab came to be one of the most On December 28, 1942 the lack of information given to them by their superiors the women did productive Uranium Isotope separation plants in the US naval base in Pearl President Roosevelt their job. The Ph.d engineers were the original monitors but were never as Harbor, Hawaii, led nation. As the demand and urgency for Uranium authorized the Manhattan effective as the calutron girls. Through practice and focus the women President Franklin grew the plant was faced with a problem. They optimized productivity contributing immensely to the war effort without Roosevelt to declare war on needed to maximize production without putting the Project to research and Japan. A few days later, machines over and endangering the rest of the build a nuclear weapon. At their knowledge. Nazi Germany declared war staff.” - Theodore Rockwell Oakridge, Tennessee the on the United States, and Y-12 electromagnetic America entered World isotope-separation plant War II against the Axis produced Uranium-235 the powers.” - US Holocaust “Former Calutron Girl Gladys only Uranium used for the Memorial Museum Owens recalled that her manager atomic bomb. The facilities at the Y-12 Plant told the team, constructed in 1943, had ‘We can train you how to do what 1,152 calutron machines is needed, but cannot tell you that separated what you are doing. I can only tell Courtesy of the Newseum Uranium-235 from you that if our enemies beat us to Uranium-238.The calutron it, God have mercy on us!’” - Oak Ridge National Laboratory model was taken from the The 1939 German invasion of Poland drew American Allies into conflict. The existing Cyclotron machine Japanese bombing at Pearl Harbor Hawaii on December 7,1941 drew the United invented by Ernest O States into a global war against facism and mobilized the nation overnight. Lawrence. Courtesy of Oak ridge National Laboratory Courtesy of The Atomic Heritage Foundation WOMEN MOBILIZE Thesis: ATOMIC LEGACY The WWII Manhattan Project relied on non communication about the mission to the Calutron Girls who monitored the Calutron Uranium purification spectrometer August 6, 1645 the U.S dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima killing “Women in uniform took office and clerical 140,000 people and ending the war. This new technology would change the jobs in the armed forces in order to free at the Y-12 lab in Oakridge, Tennessee. These capable young womens’ lack of world forever. men to fight. They also drove trucks, repaired airplanes, worked as laboratory understanding about the mission ensured success of the top-secret program technicians, rigged parachutes, served as ultimate development of the atomic bomb. “From the Enola Gay, Tibbets and his crew radio operators, analyzed photographs, flew saw ‘a giant purple mushroom’ that ‘had military aircraft across the country, already risen to a height of 45,000 feet, test-flew newly repaired planes, and even three miles above our altitude, and was trained anti-aircraft artillery gunners by still boiling upward like something acting as flying targets.” terribly alive.’“- National World War II - National World War II Museum CALUTRON GIRLS Museum These high school graduates were hired by the lab to operate the cubicles; these calutron machines operated from control panels that had to be monitored to Women were called to the labor force optimize production of the uranium. The Calutron girls did not have the time to do “As the information was broadcast around to fill positions vacated by men sent to anything other than monitor and maintain the gauges on their control panel. Most the world, Allied soldiers around the globe war. By 1945, one in four married women days the women would be completely consumed by their job and wouldn’t do felt as though they had received a reprieve from a death sentence. The end of World worked outside of the home and women anything other than perform their job for the day. War II finally appeared to be in sight.” comprised 37% of the labor force. Young Courtesy of The Newseum - National World War II Museum unmarried women began to live away from home. Courtesy of BBC “They didn’t tell you anything. I mean, they didn’t tell you—I didn’t know. It was just like looking at them. The clock, say look at the face WOMEN IN STEM GERMAN ATOMIC THREAT of a clock with one hand on it, and as you turned it, a hand could go up. Nearly 100 years later women are still lacking in STEM positions You know, you had to watch the but continue to push forward and the numbers grow daily. Women are “Hahn's discovery of nuclear fission led hand, and you just inched it up, just a now major contributors to the workforce and have contributed many to suspect that he was working hair at a time. I mean barely, barely, massive knowledge to science. Jewish Immigrant Physicist Albert on the German project to develop an barely. And you had to get it up so far Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. atomic bomb. However, Hahn never and you couldn’t go over that.” - Roosevelt August 1939. He detailing that worked on Germany's atomic program Gladys Evans and instead spent most of his time Courtesy of Oak ridge National Laboratory German radio chemists, Otto Hahn and studying various radioactive isotopes” - Fritz Strassman had discovered Nuclear Atomic Heritage Fission, perpetuating the Nazi regime’s “you had a board that stood about ten new goal of building radioactively charged feet tall, a machine-type thing, on this atom bombs. kind of like a board, and it had lots of gauges on it. And you had to turn these gauges constantly. You were trying to raise a needle. The gauge would be about three inches, no, about two and a “Einstein had written to inform Roosevelt half inches around, and you’d have to try that recent research on fission chain to raise a needle up to get the highest reactions utilizing uranium made it production that you could get. Courtesy of AAAS probable that large amounts of power could But you couldn’t take it as high as you be produced by a chain reaction and that, “Women have made many truly significant and often dramatic contributions to wanted to take it or the whole machine by harnessing this power, the construction science. Equally dramatic is the way in which the success of women in science would pop off,” - Gladys Evans of "extremely powerful bombs" was increased during the 20th century. Based on a listing, from authoritative sources, conceivable.” - U.S Department of Energy of all scientists, irrespective of nationality, who have made game-changing advances throughout history, women account for less than 7% of the total. However, if the calculation is repeated for scientists born since 1900, almost 20% are women. I have no doubt that this very encouraging trend will continue.” - Royal Society of Chemistry Courtesy of US Department of Energy Courtesy of Oak ridge National Laboratory .
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