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Home , Flamethrower, George Kistiakowsky, Japanese superstitions, Vannevar Bush, War effort

Secret , Forgotten Sacrifices Scientific R & D in World II By Adam Kline with Robyn Dexter

t was June 16, 1942, and the was still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor six months Iearlier. The nation was building up its Army and Navy as quickly as possible by training draftees and volunteers. And America’s industrial machine was converting from automobiles to and other machines of war. In fact, Carl Sanborn was working on a “secret ” called the “Mousetrap,” an antisubmarine rocket. He was doing something he had done “at least a dozen times”—which was constructing primer charges with magnesium and highly explosive potassium perchlorate. Somehow, in mixing the new powder, it ignited—because of friction, others surmised. The explosion blew parts of the table top 20 feet away and knocked Sanborn to the ground. “Am I burned too badly to live?” Sanborn, shivering from shock and unable to see, asked when he was found prone on the ground. He was bleeding from his swollen nose, with “a white cloudy film” in his eyes and his hair singed. Both legs were burned, both of his arms had multiple compound fractures, and “both [his] hands [were] partly gone, including several fingers and thumbs.” Medical help arrived, but Sanborn died early the next morning. Sanborn became another casualty of war, named “Aunt Jemima”) to pyrotechnic “panic Just as OSRD projects were overshadowed but not on the battlefields of Europe or the creators.” by reports from the front, the deaths of its islands of the South Pacific. personnel in pursuit of scientific research fell Sanborn was an employee of into obscurity, despite the enduring popular Institute of working with the FDR Taps interest in World War II. U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Devel­ To Oversee War Research The OSRD traced its origins to the creation opment (OSRD) near Pasadena to develop of the National Defense Research Commit­ the antisubmarine rockets. Throughout the The OSRD’s work, however, often met tee (NDRC) in June 1940. President Franklin war, the OSRD worked to find new weapon­ with tragedy. D. Roosevelt appointed Vannevar Bush as its ry for America’s to chairman. defeat Hitler’s Third Reich Bush, president of the and the Empire of Japan. Carnegie Institute and A wide variety of “inven­ chairman of the Nation­ tive” proposals passed al Advisory Commit­ across the OSRD’s desks tee for Aeronautics, had as the war effort brought a distinguished career. fresh problems, which He had taught electrical demanded creative solu­ engineering at Tufts Uni­ tions. Some projects never versity and saw the light of day, while Institute of Technology, others filled up the files helped create the Ray­ with myriad details of their theon Company, and development, testing, and developed a machine that shipping to the field. could solve differential While historic break­ equations. A prodigious throughs such as the tinkerer, Bush even cre­ atomic bomb and the ated a special bird feeder invention of penicil­ “inhospitable to greedy lin were widely covered pigeons and blue jays.” products of U.S. scientific After the war, when research during the war, President Harry S. Tru­ many of the OSRD proj­ man told him he had ects, whether successful a politician’s instincts, or failures, remain largely Bush replied, “Mr. unknown. President, what the hell The Office of Strate­ do you think I’ve been gic Services (OSS)—the doing around this town precursor of the Central for five or six years?” One of the out-of-the-ordinary products OSRD scientists were directed to create was an Intelligence Agency— edible plastic explosive, code-named “Aunt Jemima.” The mixture had to be undetectable, Under Bush, the NDRC and the military services safe to transport, and able to be baked into normal bread, biscuits, or muffins. was to “conduct research turned to the OSRD and for the creation and its director, Vannevar Bush, when they By the end of May 1943, the OSRD improvement of instrumentalities, meth­ needed new equipment, whether it was a acknowledged 10 fatalities “occurring in con­ ods and materials of warfare,” which it did solution to malaria or a silenced pistol. nection with . . . OSRD work.” Other deaths with the help of scientists and Under Division 19 (Miscellaneous would follow. In the course of their duties to from U.S. companies and universities. Weapons), OSRD scientists brainstormed develop innovative weapons and gear, scientists However, the NDRC was soon succeeded everything from edible plastic explosive (code- and workers perished in work-related accidents. by another body: the OSRD.

Secret Weapons, Forgotten Sacrifices Prologue 25 The frontispiece of an OSRD report on studying underwater ballistics illustrates the launching equip­ ment for projectiles and spheres.

Because the NDRC was only research- focused, it was necessary to create an agency that would handle both the research and development of projects. In addition, a new organization could properly coordi­ nate research between military branches and manage much-needed medical research. Accordingly, Executive Order 8807, issued June 28, 1941, by President Roos­ evelt, established the OSRD. Bush became its director, and the OSRD would comprise the NDRC—now with only the power to “advise and assist the Director”—along with the Advisory Council, Committee on Medical Research, Administrative Office, and Liaison Office. (Other divisions were later added.) The OSRD also had the power to use gov­ ernment resources and to make contracts with individuals, companies, and other sci­ entific organizations. This new organization provided the impetus for critical scientific research during the war.

“Evil Smelling Substances” Proposed as a Weapon

The most unconventional suggestions could succeed in the OSRD. On November 20, 1943, Stanley P. Lovell, director of OSS’s research and development, sent an unusual request in a letter to Division 19 head Har­ ris M. Chadwell. He wanted “to provide civilian populations with . . . a liquid . . . [that] will produce unmistakable evidence of extreme personal uncleanliness.”

Amid the serious letters and reports in OSRD records is a memorandum concerning confusion over an apparent request for “five pounds of live monsters.” The puzzle was cleared up when some­ one realized that by correcting three letters, the monsters became “hamsters.”

Spring 2016 Vannevar Bush headed the OSRD after President Roosevelt created the office in 1941. Bush had previ­ ously served as chairman of the National Defense Research Committee.

This memorandum inaugurated project “Who, Me?” (SAC-31), a joint venture with the Arthur D. Little Company, a chemical and engineering consulting company. Researchers mulled over formulas for their The Arthur D. Little Company worked with the OSRD to fill a request from the OSS.The OSS wanted a foul- “evil smelling substances,” focusing on “strange smelling substance that could alarm a population or contaminate enemy supplies.The “Who, Me?” research came up with several stinkers before settling on a “skunky” mixture. or novel” odors to alarm the targets, disperse crowds, and contaminate enemy supplies. They considered using mercaptans, sulphides, Night Landings and Smokescreens als needed was deemed “prohibitively large” methyl telluride, ammonium valerate, and thi­ Proposed for Army and Navy by Division A (Armor and Ordnance) Chair aldine as ingredients. Richard C. Tolman, who recommended that Eventually, the first “Who, Me?” formula Other ideas were less offbeat but equally the plan be dropped. was developed in February 1944 to use against innovative. When the Army Air Forces asked for a means the Japanese. It consisted of n-Butyric acid, In 1941, the NDRC considered develop­ of landing aircraft while hiding the bases from n-Valeric acid, n-Caproic acid, and Skatole; ing “illuminated smoke clouds” for use “in the enemy, the NDRC created ultraviolet reflec­ this particular batch had a “powerful and last­ night operations against attacking aircraft.” tor beacons that would demarcate the runway ing” fecal odor. Shells, rockets, or airplanes placed the smoke­ and aircraft-mounted UV lights that would By late 1944, the team decided that such screen, then flares would blind the maraud­ pick them up, enabling a safe landing. In August a smell would be ineffective, so Dr. E. C. ers and silhouette them against the night sky, 1942, flight tests were successful. The markers Crocker instead recommended a “skunky” easy targets for anti-aircraft and fighters. were viewed up to 4,000 feet “on a hazy night,” mixture of alpha ionone, butyric acid and Unfortunately, this method required tens of and the test plane was able to land. amyl mercaptan. After grappling with nag­ thousands of shells and flares an hour. Sci­ The Navy was interested in using the system on ging difficulties—fragile glass containers entists estimated that 500 tons of smoke for its aircraft carriers and received another demon­ breaking, accidental dripping onto users, and every 100 square miles were needed to create stration. However, the Army Air Forces advised leaky tubes—the OSS finally shipped out 500 “a totally obscuring cloud of minimum thick­ against using the system, saying that “greater tubes of each formula on February 27, 1945. ness.” The amount of equipment and materi­ secrecy in night operation” was not necessary.

Secret Weapons, Forgotten Sacrifices Prologue 27 The OSS’s Project Fantasia was an attempt at psychological warfare. OSRD sci- When two colonels asked about using methane to “freeze a neighborhood,” the entists were asked to create a device that would simulate a fearsome creature expert at Harvard Medical School pointed out the plan’s shortcomings. to terrify the Japanese.

Still, they encouraged further investigation into, tasia and “instill fear, terror, and despair.” Hop­ In response to a September 18 letter from and testing of, an “invisible beacon” for landing. ing to exploit perceived Japanese , Chadwell seeking an end to the project, the OSRD considered building the device in Lovell complied. The failure of Fantasia “will the shape of “a harmful demon, or a serve as a critique to us in the field of pure OCRD Told to Produce Device, ‘hex,’” or perhaps a “grotesque animal” such as reason,” the latter wrote. The OSRD seemed “Simulating a Creature” for Night a fox or dragon. To incinerate the hydrogen- happy to dispose of Fantasia. The minutes filled balloon, project members proposed from Division 19 on November 4 stated, Some Division 19 projects, though, were tru­ using a delayed incendiary. “This problem of Fantasia has been merci­ ly absurd. The foremost among them was Proj­ Still, doubts lingered. fully completed,” and SAC-26 was relegated ect Fantasia (SAC-26), which arose from a May In a July 5 memorandum to Lovell, it to “Dead as Dodo” status by July 6, 1944. 21, 1943, OSS directive asking Chadwell for an was clear that “We do not contemplate “eerie,” luminescent balloon as a psychological widespread . . . use of the device,” and that weapon against the Japanese. Even though OSS it might only be effective against Japanese OSRD Rejects Some Projects official Lovell deemed it “questionable, [and] “under extremely trying conditions.” For Those “Of Great Importance” outre,” research began into the device. Memorandums suggested using the device The OSS stipulated that Fantasia would “over Chinese lines” or possibly deploying it Similarly, a number of other OSRD initia­ need to be visible from 2,000 feet and “obliter­ against “isolated groups” of Japanese. (These tives were discarded on the grounds of their ated completely” after 15 minutes. Researchers were considered vulnerable to panic.) Short­ implausibility. When two colonels inquired in at the drawing board postulated using radium ages of qualified personnel, high potential 1944 about “using methane bombs to freeze a salts, special paint, fireworks, UV devices, or costs, and a general lack of enthusiasm final­ neighborhood,” Alan R. Moritz of Harvard’s even “phosphorescent gas” to illuminate Fan­ ly put an end to Fantasia. medical school dismissed the proposition,

28 Prologue Spring 2016 saying that such a weapon would only harm into the base of a transparent light bulb to make the Chief Executive” and noting that “The those within “the immediate vicinity.” He the result more harmful than the popping of a era of the large bombing plane will definitely also mentioned that methane gas would cause cracker.” Fragmentation would be limited, he pass” thanks to his invention. severe injury. He stated that using incendiary wrote, the device’s lethal range would be two or The government’s response was unenthu­ rounds to ignite a kilogram of methane gas three feet at best, and liquid explosives would be siastic. would release “approximately 13,000 kilo- noticed in the clear bulb. Blackout experienced K. T. Compton of the NDRC was “not calories,” as opposed to the mere 250 kilo- the same fate as Fantasia by July 6, 1944. optimistic about the possibilities of this calories taken in by warming liquid methane. The most colorful proposals of all came invention,” noting that any blast energy Another Division 19 research project, “Black­ from those eager to market a “death ray” to would be “rapidly dissipated.” By year’s end, out” (SAC-20), was more practical than Fanta­ the government. From 1940 to 1943, no Antonio Longoria, George A. Finch, John sia. It sought to explosive lightbulbs for fewer than six separate inventors approached C. Roberts, and Mike Cronis attempted to use in China, presumably against the Japanese the NDRC and OSRD with their plans. interest the government in their creations. occupiers. On May 17, 1943, a month after Christian H. Kenneweg was the first. He One official scoffed at Finch and Roberts, Chadwell received the order, Blackout ran into claimed to have a device that could produce a saying, “The technical description reads like trouble. , head of Divi­ “highly concentrated molecular vibration” and ‘Amazing Tales.’” Despite the scientists’ sion 8 (Explosives), wrote emphatically that “It destroy enemy aircraft “at or over experimen­ claim to have killed five ducks in flight with is absolutely impossible to put enough explosive tally ascertained distances of several miles.” He their device, Tolman believed that they had sim- had already sent a letter to British Prime Min­ The government received several proposals to take the ister , without success. “death ray” from science fiction to fact. FBI Director J. Undeterred, Kenneweg wrote another let­ Doing research on and testing new weapons was Edgar Hoover forwarded a paper on “tele-concentra­ dangerous work. Roy Hurt was killed in an tion of high power energy” to the OSRD, which deemed ter to President Roosevelt days later, appeal­ accident at a chemical facility producing a protective it “entirely without technical content or import.” ing to “The great humanitarian complex of compound against poison gas.

Secret Weapons, Forgotten Sacrifices Prologue 29 ply used strychnine-laced grain, a “favorite stunt ed to be 60 feet deep and was not recovered. had insurance and was deemed “adequately pro­ of self-styled death ray inventors.” Upon reaching shore, the bodies of Wyse and vided for”), entitled their families to government The OSRD soon tired of the “Death Ray two crewmembers were found in L-2. Tilles’s compensation and was signed by Roosevelt on Atomic Energy Machines” and “Lethal Ray body was found in the water the next morning. March 24, 1944. Sadly, Bush’s sympathy letters Projectors.” After reading a 1943 report by one Altogether, 12 men died, and one lucky would be repeated many times to yet more sur­ “Professor Kraus” on his supposed death ray, ensign had escaped. Each scientist left a vivors of fallen OSRD workers. Bush personally rejected the proposal in a letter widow. Wyse, the youngest at 32 years old, to J. Edgar Hoover, calling it “a rambling state­ left behind two young sons; Hoover, the old­ ment with a liberal use of scientific terms which est at 56 years old, had one son in medical Developing Protective Gear makes . . . unsupported claims.” Little came of school and another in the Army. Risky Business for Staff the death rays. Four days later, Bush composed identical letters to each grieving widow. Even OSRD personnel working to develop “No word that I can write can of course less­ protective equipment were at risk. In an effort “A Very Secret and en your grief,” he explained. “Not every man to avert the horrors of the last war’s chemical Very Important Matter” who serves his country does so in uniform.” weapons, the Commercial Solvents Company While unable to disclose the “very secret and was given a contract to produce “a compound As the war took millions of lives at Saipan very important” flare project, Bush wrote that to be used . . . as a protection against poison and Stalingrad, at Caen and Cassino, at Kas­ each man “made a real contribution to the gas.” The resulting product, S-461 protec­ serine and Kursk, and at countless other bat­ tive ointment, was produced in Terre Haute, tlefields across the globe, OSRD members Indiana, where 28-year-old laborer Roy Nel­ also gave their lives in the line of duty. son Hurt worked in the drying facility. On June 8, 1942, while U-boats roamed the At 6:45 in the morning of September Atlantic Ocean in search of Allied cargo ships, “Not every man 23, 1942, smoke billowed from the dryer the OSRD tested a new anti-submarine weap­ building’s south door, and Joseph Roman, a on—underwater flares—off of Manasquan, who serves his fellow plant worker, dashed inside. With a New Jersey. In order to shoot photographs, the cloth around his nose and mouth to ward Navy lent two blimps. On board airship G-1 country does so off the thick, noxious smoke, he stumbled that night were C. R. Hoover, L. S. Moyer, and toward Hurt and managed to help him out F. C. Gilbert, while airship L-2 carried A. B. in uniform” of the building, despite being “nearly over­ Wyse and I. H. Tilles. Accompanying the sci­ come by the fumes and by shock.” An ambu­ entists were eight Navy servicemen. lance arrived within eight minutes, but a According to eyewitnesses on a Coast Guard doctor caring for Hurt at the hospital found boat, at 9 p.m. L-2 “passed over the bow” of the him “semi-conscious,” with “second and vessel, signaling with its blinker, but the crew work . . . he has given his life for his country third degree burns involving practically the below asked that they signal again “as none of . . . as though he had been in the front line entire body.” Even Hurt’s eyes had suffered the seamen aboard clearly read it.” As L-2 circled trenches.” third-degree burns and “practically complete to repeat the signal, “the gondola of L-2 struck However, the OSRD’s work was not done destruction of the corneas.” Despite blood the bag of G-1,” and both plummeted into the here. Due to a bureaucratic loophole, the plasma infusions and hot paraffin dressings, dark ocean. The boat picked up one survivor scientists “were in a unique and unfortunate Hurt died at 7:30 p.m. and fired off all its red flares to call for help. situation.” As they were affiliated with uni­ An investigation soon determined the cause The two blimps, held afloat by air pockets, versities and paid by them, they did not fall of the accident. “Inferior quality” S-461, unsta­ were being towed back to shore in the hopes under the Employees’ Compensation Act. In ble with impurities, had decomposed. Over a of rescuing any survivors, but G-1 detached May 1943, Bush sent a drafted bill designed half-ton of the material had been destroyed. along the way. The crew decided that it would to correct that problem to the House Com­ Mrs. Hurt received $2,000 from a company be better to continue towing one blimp rather mittee on Claims, and later urged the Presi­ insurance plan, plus $5,000 more from Indi­ than risk losing both by trying to retrieve the dent to approve it. ana’s Workmen’s Compensation Act. Homer second blimp. Another boat picked up the The bill, which designated Wyse, Hoover, Adkins, who inspected the plant, added that G-1, but it sank once more in water estimat­ Moyer, and Tilles as civil employees (Gilbert he hoped “that it may be possible for O.S.R.D.

30 Prologue Spring 2016 to assist Mrs. Hurt financially,” but noted that “No mention of this possibility . . . has been made by anyone so far as I know.” On August 14, 1946, Bush wrote to Mrs. Hurt to explain the circumstances of her husband’s death. The fear of “horrible suffering and disfigure­ ment [by] poison gas” had driven the need for S-461, which had been shipped out to Gua­ dalcanal just days after Hurt’s death. Bush even thanked Roman for his heroism, commend­ ing his “quick thinking and prompt action.” While the property damage to the plant was dismissed by Adkins as “inconsequential,” the human cost was anything but trivial.

“The Whole Thing Had Gone”

The Budget and Finance Office’s “Acci­ dent” file mentions that one E. R. Barnard, an assistant project director at Standard Oil, was injured in a flamethrower accident, but gave few details. The full story is held in the Standard Oil contractor files. The company, which frequently worked on OSRD projects, was tasked on April 1, 1943, with creating a -mounted flamethrower. Engineers devised a tank-towed trailer containing jellied fuel and compressed air. The pressure An internal memo to Vannevar Bush noted the risks—sometimes fatal—OSRD personnel faced. chamber was highly problematic and required multiple repairs after leaks during tests. his back and walked away, he heard “some tegrated” pressure vessel was strewn across On May 29, 1944, the flamethrower was strange noise,” but when he turned his head, over half a mile. Senior research engineer F. due for another test involving 13 workers, “he realized that the whole thing had gone.” K. Ovitz, research engineer J. G. Nellis, and ranging from the project director to the Another bystander saw a “sheet of flame on experimental mechanics J. J. Hanusin and J. driver. As the compressors were brought up the left side of the trailer,” then was hurled M. Leonard were all mortally wounded. Nine to a pressure of 500 psi, the right compressor to the ground by “a violent ” as others were injured, two of them seriously. failed but was soon restarted. Its low-pres­ the pressure chamber exploded. Two others Inquiries by Standard Oil, its subcontractor sure unloading valve remained open, but a remembered little more than that “everything Merz Engineering, and the OSRD eventually tap with an iron bar solved that problem. was on .” The tank was “completely burned determined the cause of the catastrophic failure. As research engineer W. A. Proell turned out,” and the wreckage of the “badly disin­ The vessel was flawed from the start. Analysts

To learn more about. . . � • Records relating to World War II research and development in the National Archives, go to www.archives.gov/research/ guide-fed-records/groups/227.html. • Records relating to World War II research and development at the , go to www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/trs/trsosrd.html. • Records of the Office of Strategic Services in the National Archives, go to www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/oss/.

Secret Weapons, Forgotten Sacrifices Prologue 31 During testing of a flamethrower towed by a tank, four personnel were mortally wounded when the poorly designed and fabricated vessel catastrophically failed. complained that it did not abide by indus­ and critical injuries to try standards, was poorly welded, and had an his legs and lower body. unsound design. Weakened springs and lubri­ He died three days later cating oil deposits had caused the right com­ in the hospital from pressor’s troublesome valve to stick open; as a kidney failure. O’Bryan result, recompression and high temperatures had been married for ignited carbon or oil deposits. Fuel leaking into less than a month. The the compressor was set ablaze, then “forced cause of the blast was back into the fuel chamber, thereby igniting the unknown, but it was entire supply of fuel.” An OSRD memorandum speculated to have been regarded the disaster as “just one of those unfor­ the spontaneous com­ tunate mishaps which may occur in the course bustion of the chlorated of any research on dangerous instrumentalities sawdust and charcoal in of war performed at an accelerated pace.” (In a the dryers. bit of twisted irony, the earlier “Firefly” project When the OSRD con­ assigned to Standard Oil was a device designed ceived a device capable to detonate gas tanks.) It was concluded that of “extracting oxy­ “direct connection of an air compressor to the gen from the air” and fuel container is extremely hazardous.” A faulty recycling it, they con- The widow of Frank Ovitz, one of those killed in the flamethrower explosion, wrote to Vannevar Bush expressing the hope that her husband’s research work valve and shoddy engineering had cost the lives tracted the Univer­ would eventually save other lives. of four men. sity of Pennsylvania to develop it. Scientists working on the project, which was deemed “of great importance to bill for Geissman in a July 29, 1947, mem­ Mixing of Chemicals the war effort,” used salcomine, a “cobalt­ orandum to the Bureau of the Budget. (A Can Produce Explosion containing organic chelate,” to absorb and scribbled annotation confirmed the bill was release oxygen. On April 18, 1944, the pres­ approved.) Other grave accidents merited attention surized experimental device sprang a leak, Under another OSRD contract, Sam­ in the OSRD files. On April 3, 1943, an spraying salcomine into the air. Theodore uel Ruben, “the best young experimental explosion at Servel, Inc., which produced oil A. Geissman stopped the leak but suffered chemist in the country,” in one colleague’s smoke pots for the OSRD, “destroyed the “severe toxic hepatitis” in the process, which eyes, worked at the University of Califor­ laboratory,” fatally injuring technical aide required expensive medical treatment. Years nia, Berkeley. In late September 1943, an Clarence O’Bryan. He suffered serious burns later, the OSRD urged passage of a relief experimental vial of phosgene shattered,

32 Prologue Spring 2016 spraying the contents into his face. He was proper balance between . . . security of per­ “If we can make speed we will save lives . . . rushed to an oxygen tent, but his condition sonnel on the one hand and . . . an important [and] we will increase the safety of this coun­ deteriorated. He died the next day, leaving and dangerous undertaking on the other.” try in a critical period of the anti-submarine “a wife and three small children.” Since he The final chapter of the Sanborn tragedy effort.” had previously been involved in ordinary came on January 6, 1948, when Congress Relatively little public interest in the U.S. research on non-toxic butane gas, he did passed a law to relieve his dependents, with experience in World War II has focused not have extra-hazardous insurance. These Bush lobbying for recognition of Sanborn’s on the efforts on the to supply lamentable cases and others like them “supreme patriotism.” troops with war-winning equipment, and would stay out of the limelight, effectively While he emphasized the need for vigilance even less attention is devoted to the OSRD’s forgotten. and safety precautions, he added: “It is never work. While its inventions were not always In the OSRD, sacrifices were made and possible to be absolutely perfect. . . . If we accepted, any research organization makes conspicuous heroism was displayed, from were to strive for absolute perfection, we sim­ missteps. The endless ingenuity of its sci­ Joseph Roman’s attempt to save his col­ ply could not . . . work at the speed which the entists demonstrated the extent of human league to Geissman’s stopping the toxic war effort warrants.” Bush pointed out that creativity. P salcomine leak with disregard for his own safety. In October 1942, in the wake of the Note on Sources fatal blimp crash, Commercial Solvents A special thank you to Elizabeth Fortson of Spe­ Theodore Geissman incident, Roy Nelson Hurt fire, and Caltech deaths, OSRD Executive cial Media for her quick thoughts and able assis­ incident, the Standard Oil flamethrower incident, Assistant Carroll L. Wilson acknowledged tance in acquiring some of the images used. Clarence O’Bryan incident, Raymond L. Robey Little has been written about the Office of Sci­ incident, as well as enclosed legislation, deaths that “Many of our personnel . . . expose entific Research and Development in World War chart, letters to families, various reports. themselves to serious risks . . . our people II. In the 21st-century definition of “informa­ Projects Fantasia (SAC-26), Blackout (SAC­ are working with poisonous chemicals, tion accessibility” determined by the number of 20), Firefly (SAC-21), Who, Me? (SAC-23B) material can be found in Division 19 (Miscella­ with high explosives . . . with infectious Google hits, the OSRD rates 18,000 hits. Many of these hits repeat short biographical informa­ neous): Project or Problem Files. diseases . . . Our men have not hesitated to tion, giving dates, creation process, and senior Reports on the investigation of the November take these risks.” leadership. Little has been written about breadth 1944 flamethrower explosion are in Records of One notable death was that of Wallace of the projects; most of the focus on the Man­ the Administrative Office: Contractors’ Reports: Division 11: Standard Oil Dev. Co, Standard Oil B. Caufield, Jr., an employee of Harvard’s hattan Project, and even less about the men and women who staffed them. In 1948, Irvin Stew­ Co. (IND.). Radio Research Laboratory, who was strafed art wrote a 358-page administrative history that Information about the oil smoke pots accident by Luftwaffe aircraft in Luxembourg on gives an excellent view into the office structure, that killed Clarence O’Bryan.is in Records of the January 1, 1945, as the the administrative evolution, and notes in no less Administrative Office: Contractors’ Reports: Di­ than five places that they were heavily encour­ vision 10: Rochester, Univ. Of, Servel, Inc. raged. As shown by its drafted relief bills and aged to hire women. The Library of Congress Additional accident reports can be found in lobbying, the OSRD was reluctant to leave also holds a significant amount of OSRD’s docu­ Records of the Administrative Office: General the families of its fallen employees in desper­ mentation, making research documentation, final Records, OSRD: Accidents to Accounting. ate financial straits and worked to compen­ results reports, and other administrative material available to both the research community and the Authors sate them. public alike. The story of the OSRD, encompassing The Records of the Office of Scientific Re­ Adam Kline is a research intern both its unconventional projects and the search and Development (Record Group 227) studying the OSRD at the Nation­ al Archives at College Park, Mary­ losses it suffered, is a potent reminder of the are in the National Archives at College Park, . Records of the Committee on Medical land. A high school senior, he plans risks and rewards of scientific research dur­ Research—Rad Lab, contain information about to study international relations ing World War II. liquid methane bombs, supersonic generators to with a focus on global security. He Carl Sanborn’s death in June 1942 was repel malarial mosquitoes, monster/hamster con­ has also contributed to the online fusion, and the “truth serum.” publication Student World Report. not the first civilian victim claimed by the General records, 1940–1947, has information This is his first article forPrologue. war at sea. Caltech had already suffered a about the blind landing UV landing system, il­ Robyn Dexter is the supervisory death in connection to Mousetrap on March luminated smoke cloud countermeasure for night archivist for the paper. She has been 27, when assistant mechanic Raymond L. landings, and “death ray” (DUKW) research. with the National Archives for five Correspondence in the Budget and Finance years, serving in the Anchorage, Robey was fatally burned. Office Records, 1942–1944, has information Alaska, San Bruno, California, and In a letter to Caltech, Bush conceded that about the Carl Sanborn incident, blimp crash, College Park, Maryland offices. “It is an exceedingly difficult thing to strike a

Secret Weapons, Forgotten Sacrifices Prologue 33