39

Chicago World's Fair. When he finished his speech and received his award, he
noticed an older man approaching the podium. In his later years, Spedding
remembered the old man:

[He] was short, had a long white beard and was bald.... He

blurted out “How would you like to have a pound of europium
and two or three pounds of samatium?63

Of course, Spedding thought the man was cazy. As far as he knew,
those rare earths were available only in milligram quantities. He answered the
man politely and told him that would be fine; it would certainly help his work
to receive europium and samarium, After he arrived back in California, a box
containing fruit jars of europium and samarium oxides arrived from this odd
man in Chicago, As it turned out, his patron was Herbert McCoy, a professor of
chemistry from the University of Chicago. Spedding started a correspondence
with the man that lasted until McCoy's death in 1945, McCoy befriended young
chemists like Spedding and provided them with quantities of rare earths for
their: research, only charging them cost or. nothing at all in-some-cases, 84

In 1934-35, Spedding won the Guggenheim to work abroad in Germany
with two physicists, James Franck, 2 Nobel Prize winner, and Francis Simon,
an expert in low temperature physics. Unfortunately, before Spedding could
finalize his tip plans, Hitler came to power and both men fled the country.

®8Svee, “Prologue,” 1988, 5.

84 Seec, “Prologue,” 1988, 5-6, It was probably Herbert McCoy who later got i
the job as Chemistry Division chief and even Compton in Atontic Quest confirmed that it was
McCoy who recommended 5; ling to hirn (p. 93). See also Norman Hilberry, interview with
peri ak ners Ailes of ool 2, Ie possession of author, Ames LA, 4 Hilberry also
indicai it was McCoy who suggested Spedding lo the physicists w! met
early February 1942. oy



60

Bloomfield, New Jersey, as eatly as 1919 had experimented with using metallic
uranium as a substitute for tungsten in incandescent filaments. In 1927, they
took out a patent on the process.!3!_ Knowing that uranium was close to
tungsten on the periodic chart, it seemed natural that it could be used as
filament material. Since its melting point was lower than tungsten though, it
did not prove satisfactory. Nevertheless, the laboratory continued research on
wank and other rare earths and even produced very small quantities of the
metal for college and university research experiments,i32

In 1929, two other researchers at Westinghouse, Frank Driggs and
William Lilliendahl, refined the process to obtain pure uranium metal by an
electrolysis of the fused salts. Essentially. the electrolytic process involved
producing a “green salt,” potassium uranium fluoride, which had been
photochemically created on the roof of one of the buildings at Bloomfield,
using sunlight to initiate the photochemical reaction. The resulting product,
KUFs, was mixed with calcium chloride and sodium chloride and heated.
When the salts melted, the uranium ions that tiad deposited on a
molybdenum electrode were removed and crushed into particles. After being
washed in barrels, the uranium was dried in vacuum ovens and pressed into

131“Westinghouse Lamp Division Marks 50 Years of Progress in Bloomfield,” Press
Release from Westinghouse in Harley A, Wilhelm Papers, Ames Laboratory, Ames, Iowa, 4
(hereafter Wilheltn Papers). For an in depth discussion of these three processes, see Harley
A, Withelm, “Development of Uranium Metal Production in America,” Journal of Chemical
Education 37 (February 1960): 56-68. Most of the material the author has used in the
éeerriptions above anal those to follow comes from: the ietters and other written material sent
to as he was preparing this article, Although the materiat is also summarized by
Wilhelm, the author cites the background documents since they are often in more detail than
Withelm's account.

182}ohn Walsh, “A Manhattan Project Postscript.” Science 212 Qune 19, 1981): 1370.



56

was allowed to pick out any military men and women who had bachelor’s
degrees in chemistry, as long as they did not have orders to leave for the wat's
European front. At one time, he went through military records with Groves’
permission and chose forty chemisis from the wartime list-—twenty to go to
Chicago and twenty for Ames.123

Spedding also recruited juniors and seniors, primarily at lowa State,
who were chemistry majors and put them io work on production lines.
Sometimes these men were drafted, but Spedding often managed to get them
reassigned back at Jowa State or in Chicagn.!24 Local area people were often
hired on the project at Ames. One of the chief jewelers in Ames at the time
made small instrumentation; a retired bank president became a store room
clerk and later a security guard at Little Ankeny; a gas station owner was head
of security; and a smail tool shop along with its owner was moved to the
campus.225

Spedding’s support staff was meager at the start of the war. A business
mariager and Iwo secretaties kept records, made out purchase orders, and
handled whatever non-scientific duties were needed. As the zed tape grew
throughout the war, so did the staff. At the end of the war, the Ames Project
was employing almost one non-scientist support person for every scientist.
The laboratory had its own janitorial staff. There was a large contingent of
security guards hired from the local Ames community that had replaced the

1236pedding, interview 6 with Calciano, 6; Frank H. Spedding, “Security Fout Up.”
Spedding Manuscript, 1-2, See P
Taspedding, interview 6 with Calclano, 9-10.
25Spedding, interview 6 with Calciano, 13; Svec, interview with author, April 1992.



65

if the proper equipment could be procured for them to scale up their present
laboratory method.¥45

Conipton, at this point, decided he would contact his old friend Edward
Mallinckrodt who ran a chemical plant in St. Louis that specialized in the
Production of ether and other chemicals. In May 1942, Compton and Frank
Spedding in his capacity as head of chemistry traveled to St, Louis. Compton
explained the ether extraction project to Mallinckrodt while Spedding worked
out the details with the engineers Henry Farr and John Ruhoff, Within two
hours Mallinckrodt agreed to tackle the job. At best. Compton had no real idea
how much the process would cost, so he approved a letter of intent from the
OSRD to Mallinckrodt with a promise to negotiate a contract later for the actual
costs, The first quantities were shipped in July 1942, and continued at the rate
of 30 tong per month, accomplishing the remarkable feat of producing on a
commercial scale pure uranium oxide that was attainable only on a laboratory
scale mere months before. The actual contract was not signed until the day
that the last of the 60 tons left the Mallindaodt plant, an example of the
flexibility of the government policies toward contracting management on. the
one hand and the remarkable faith in the Project by the company on the other
hand.46 Making pure uranium oxide became crucial in several processes _
throughout the war, induding adding to the pile at Chicago, making manium

‘USHerbert Anderson and Herbert McCoy, “Memorandum to A. H. Compton on visit to

Port Hope Refineries of the Eldorado Gold Mines, Lid,” April 16, 1942. Ames Laboratory
pers, 4,

Mégmyth, 93; Compton, Atomic Quest, 99-05; Spedding, interview with Calciano 5, 18;
F. H. Spedding, “Patent Letter to Lt. Calonel H. E. Metcalf Describing the Mallinckrodt
Process," May 11. 1945, 1-2.



33

By February, the centralized project had taken its code name as the
Metallurgical Project, so called, according to Compton, because

we had been considering for some time setting up at the
University an institute af metals, which indeed became a Teality
after the war was over, Thus our Chicago colleagues saw nothing
surprising in a wartime metals research program.&?

Compton was director of the Metallurgical Project and Norman Hilberry
was appointed Associate Director. But now the project needed a centralized
research facility or laboratory. Called the Metallurgical Laboratory, it was also
organized and staffed during this period. Richard Doan, because of his
experience in industrial organizations, was made director and scientists from
around the country were brought to Chicago, including one from Iowa State
College.68

The Ames Project

Frank H. Spedding: Chemistry division leadet and Ames Project head
Sometime between Decenibér 1941 and February 1942, Frank H.
Spedding, a professor in charge af physical chemistry at Iowa State College in.

& Compton, 82.
Compton, 83.
in several interviews later in his life, Spedding claimed he was contacted by
Compton on December 6, 1941, and asked to take over the Chemistry division, Though that is
it is somewhat unlikely if Complon needed to contact others to get Spedding’s name.
Also, the Metallurgical Laboratory was not organized until sometime in January this

would have been a more logical time to contact Spedding, There is also evidence that
ing was in Chicago in January for several weeks according to some of his later

interviews and interviews with Wilhelm making this a more likely time to be asked to head
up chemistry research. In other accounts, particularly from the early Ames Laboratory
ications, Spedding claimed he was contacted sometime in February, Th any event,
ing was officially hired on the project on February 22, 1942, Referenced in J. C, Sterns,
to Frank H. Spedding on Hiring,” March 19, 1942, the Frank H. Spedding Papers,
Record Group 17/1/11, the Robert W. Parks and Ellen Sorge Parks Library, Ames, Jowa
thereafter cited as Spedding Papers). A memorandum: was sent to President Charles Friley on



3

and continued much to the chagrin of the local university architect who had
‘been trying to get this old building torn down for several years prior to is
occupancy by the Ames Project people. 162
After the building became availeble, a machine shop at the production
site became the second necessity. Wilhelm heard of a small machine shop,
owned and managed by Bill Maitland, for sale in Ames west of Grand Avenue
near the railroad. Maitland made garden tools normally, but he could no
longer obtain the metal he needed because of war-time restrictions on material
priorities. Wilhelm examined the shop contents and discovered that Maidand
‘would sell all his tools and equipment for $8,000. After consulting with
Spedding, both men contacted Maitland and bought the entire shop, moving
the equipment along with Bill Maitland to the campus production building,
officially called the Physical Chemistry Annex, later nicknamed by the local
workmen as “Little Ankeny." after a war munitions plant in Ankeny, Towa.16¢
___ _.,, Production equipment, unlike lathes, motors, and small tools &om. .
Maitland, was much harder t procure, For example, reduction furnaces were
especially hard to obtain. The small reduction furnace in the Chemistry
Department used to produce most of the metal earlier was not big enough for a

162Withetm, interview with Kline 1988, 4; Spedding, Wilhelm, and Daane,
interview, May 1967, 10; Spedding, interview with Barton C. Hacker, 1980, 22, For
photographs af the building and a floor plan of the operation see Appendix B, Figures 1-2.

lotwithetn, interview with Kline, 1988, 5, It is not known how the building received
its name, but it was quite apt as.@ name for the project (Esther Polito to Bart Merrill, Letter
on the Name Little Ankeny, September 21, 1945 in the Ames Laboratory Papers). Acirian
Daane, one of the scientists in the project thought that it was named ‘BY some of the local
townspeople who worked on the project and the name just stuck. These people knew of the
mranitions factory in Ankeny and just named it after that factory since the work on the Ames
Project was somewhat dangerous, particularly with the nunaber of explosions occurring on a
routine basis (Daane, telephone interview with anthor, March 18, 1992),



71

Idon’t believe anyone took the work there [at Ames] very seriously
tntil Spedding came to a technical council meeting one fine
autumn day and smugly laid an “egg,”—an almost perfect cylinder
of uranium metal, on the table for inspection, Even then, while
admiring the accomplishment, everyone I am sure felt that it would
be futile to look to a couple of college professors for the production
of any significant quantity of metal.?5? .

The Building of a Pilot Plant

But futile it was not. Within a week, R. L. Doan, the Metallurgical
Laboratory director, had arrived on the Iowa Siate campus to write an OSRD
contract for the Ames Project to produce 100 pounds of uranium per day, using
its simple and cheap process.1 The intention was that Iowa State would
demonstrate the process to companies like DuPont, Electromet, and Mallinckrodt
but continue to make uranium until the companies could integrate the processes
info their own plants.16! The Ames Project at this point became two
complementary projects—one aimed at conducting chemistry studies on
uranium and plutonium, and the other incorporating the Ames Process to
pioduce uranium in a pilot plant

Most of the research and chemical studies to date had occurred in the
Chemistry Building, but with the need to add a full-scale pilot plant more space
was needed for furnaces and other machinery as well as for the increased staff to
scale up the uranium-producing process. Wilhelm and Spedding started a

1592. L, Doan, “Latter to Harley A, Wilhelm about Recolfections for Paper on Uranium
Production.” August 21, 1958. in Wilhelm Papers, 2.

160Doan.2.

161Spedding, interview with Barton C. Hacker. 21.



43
Ph D. committees; and the equipment to do the type of research he wanted to
conduct could not be ordered because of the lack of funds! He even had to
temporarily change his emphasis from the rare earths to topics of an
agricultural emphasis, an area of research in which he could find College
funds 52

Towa State University: The location of the science laboratory

it is surprising that Iowa State College became the center for this
uranium research. considering the state of research and science at the
institution at the time. Spedding recalled Iowa State as typical of many
midwestern schools. The student body numbered around 5,000 and was
dominated by agriculture, engineering. home economics, and other applied

51In several letters to McCoy, Spedding telis of the deteriorating situation. On
February 27, 1939 he tells McCoy: “I have been extremely busy gelting this division
organization and getting my teaching under way so that my research has suffered. However,
Ihave finally assembled my equipment and expect to be producing at the same old rate
shortly.” On January 28, 1942, he again tells McCoy, “It has taken longer than | anticipated
to.get my research-program functioning here at Ames but Fexpect to have it go fall blast from *
now on.” He tells McCoy about building a spectrograph and wood grating, but he does not tell
him the frustrations of writing over two hundred companies to get the pieces necessary to
Dutld that equipment (Spedding Papers notation on a miscellancons file).

S2«industrial Science Research lastitute Frogtess Reports on Projects," lowe State
College. Division of Industrial Science, Office of the Dean, May 8, 1939, Ames Laboratory
Papers, 5; fowa State Col of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Announcement of the Graduate
Division, Ames, Towa, 1945-46, 126-130. Spedding’s first funded project involved his arca of
absorption spectra at low temperatures, but was for vitamins and organic materials rather
than rare earth metals. Spedding’s slepartment was part of the Division of Industelal
Science, a service division that included most of the non-engineering and agricultural
deparements on carps: The funds came from the Industrial Science Research Institute, the
istcring unit that oversaw research for those same departments, Spedding also told
McCoy about this new approach in a letter as early as February 27, 1939 ‘Spedding Papers);
“I have become interested in the possibility of quantitatively determining the amount of
vitamins, hormones, etc., present in lex organic mixtires by means of adsorption spectra at
Jow temperatures,” In 1940 with R. M. m another faculty member in Chemistry, he
examined spectra of sugars and starches (PF. H. iding and R. M, Hixon, “Ramen spectra of
supa, dexteins and starches, lowa Corn Research institule Report of Agricultural Research 5
62-63). Spedding also had five Ph.D. students before the war, all working with

adsorption spectra.



61

small pieces called butions? Up until 1941, the process, according fo
Lilliendahl, had produced only a few kilograms of pure meial, hardly enough
for commercial large-scale users. It was for sale in the open market for about
$1,006 a pound.194 In 1941, both the British and U.S. governments approached
the company about the possibility of scaling up the process to produce ton
quantities of the metal.

In December 1941, the Office of Scientific Research and Development
(OSRD) signed a contract with Westinghouse to produce metallic wranium.135
By the Spring of 1942, little metal had been produced, primarily because of the
lack of sunshine in the New Jersey climate. Westinghouse investigated, with
litte success, the possibility of using ultraviolet lamps and even considered
moving the operation to Arizona where the sun would shine more often.
Though producing the required quantities of uranium metal remained 2
problent for the duration of the contract, the Westinghouse Process never
encountered an impurity problem because of the high purity of its raw
materials and because of its excellent analytical procedures to detect impurities
all along the process. Later, after substituting uranium tetrafluoride, UF¢,
instead of KUFs, Westinghouse found that this process did not need the sun,
and by November 1942, just a month before the Stagg Field chain reaction
experiment, the company had sent 6,000 pounds of the metal to Chicago at a

233Patent No. 1,961,625 issued June 7, 1932; Walsh, 1370; W. C. Lilliendahl, “Letter to
Harley A, Wilhelm on his Article on Uranium,” August 5, 1958, Wilhelm Papers; Smyth, 92.

U4Gmyth, 93; Compton, Atomic Quest, 91 say the cost of Producing wraniom by this
method was around $1,000 per pound while Lillientahf in bis tier to Withete ce ‘Angust 5.
1958 quoted the amount at ‘S00. ‘This author finds no evidence to refute the figure given by

Compton and Smyth whose accounts were muck closer to the time period.
T85cilliendahl to Wilhelm, 2-3.



24
Science and National Security

in 1941, several events cemented the link between science and national
security. Many American scientists became convinced about the metits of the
uranium research program, partly with help from their British colleagues,
When the British MAUD Committee’6 sent a report on its scientific progress to
the USS. scientific community, several American physicists became convinced
about the possibilities of building a bomb. ‘This committee was muck like the
US, uranium committee, except that it was made up of active working
physicists instead of government bureaucrats. MAUD, in the spring of 1940,
came to the conclusion that a bomb could be built 47

Americans were somewhat more convinced about the feasibility of a
bomb after Glenn Seaborg and his research group identified ptatonium in B, O,
Lawrence's laboratory in California in early 1941 In the spring of 1941,
Lyman Briggs persuaded Vannevar Bush to initiate an independent review of
the entire uranium project; Bush, in turn, asked F. B. Jewett, president of the
“National Academy of Sciences, to establish a committee. jewett appointed a

‘6Rhodes, 340, The committee was code named MAUD after the sterious message
Lise Meitner had cabled to an English friend: “MET NIELS AND MARG RECENTLY
BOTH WELE BUS UNHAPPY ABOUT EVENTS PLEASE INFORM COCKCROFT AND
MAUD RAY KENT, The message was believed to be an anagram for “radium taken” Later
in the pray ne comanitica found ont that Maud Ray was a governess for the Bohr children
who Ii in Kent.

“Moore, 276-79; Rhodes, 329-330, 40-41, The coramitice Teported that fast neutrons
as well as slow neutrons could cause nuclear fission. The report inchicled an estimation that
W235 could be reproduced in a sphere sinall enough to make a bomb, The best method to
produce the bomb—gaseous diffusion—would turn uranium into a gas thus allowing for the
collection of the U3 isotope. The committee also severely criticized American scientists
becanse they were doing nothing about the German menace.

‘®Rhodes, 362-555. In March 1941, Glen T. Seaborg, a young chemist in Lawrence's
laboratory, discovered a new element called 94, later named “plutoniuny” in 1942,



54

duplication since, after all, he was in charge of both groups and kept each
informed of the offter’s work.117

In Jate 1943, Spedding delivered a report on the organizational structure
of the Ames Project He acknowledged that the main chemical research group
resided in Chicago. Ames served as the “supplementing pioneer research
group to the main chemical program.’"6 The men in group Jeader positions
even at this date—Spedding, Johns, Wilhelm, Rundle, Sulliyan, Newton. and
Kelle:—were all young men, most barely in their thirties; the younger men
and the few women under them were equivalent to graduate students working
on their doctorates.1!9 ,

Because of the youth and scientific inexperience of the scientists at
Ames, Spedding indicated that most of the research needed to be completed. “as
a result of group discussions and teamwork between the various groups.”120
Twice a week, his group leaders and section leaders met fo discuss the previous
week's work and plan for the next week's tasks. In addition, each group met
once & week with its own section chief or group leader, . Spedding later
remembered the organization:

with uranium and the plutonium process} were maintained throughout fhe wat' because no one
knew which way was ultimately to be successful.

W7Speriding, interview 5 with Caleano, 19. .

T18Prank H. Spedding, “Report of the Ames Chemical and Metallurgical Groups from
February 20, 1942 to Dec, 22, 1943,” the Ames Labaratary Papers, 1. ®

U5frank H. Spedding, t of the Ames Chemical and Metallmgical Groups from
February 20, 1942 #0 Dec. 23, 1943,” the Ames Papers, 1,

120frank H, Spedding, “Report of the Ames Chemical and Metallurgical Groups front
Febuitary 20, 1982 to Dee. 23,9945," 1-2. ne



40

Spedding went instead to England to work at the famous Cavendish Laboratory
with Ralph Fowler, 2 noted theoretical physicist. He also traveled to other
laboratories in France and Germany and spoke in Leningrad. The Speddings,
Frank and Ethel, also went to Copenhagen for a month where he worked with
the eminent Niels Bohr. After this time abtoad, Spedding and his wife
returned to the United States. Still with no permanent job, Spedding took
another temporary two year position, the George Fisher Baker Assistant
Professorship at Comell University for 1935-37.

Spedding, working with Hans Bethe a colleague at Corneil, resumed his
previous rare earth research and continued to depend upon Herbert McCoy for
a supply of rare earths.85 When the two year stint was over, Spedding was in
the same situation, with no promise of a permanent job. He decided to try his
Juck again in Berkeley, so he and Bthel packed their ald Chevrolet and turned
west. Spedding had heard of an opening at Ohio State. but when he arrived,
William Lloyd Evans, the chairman of the department, had just hired a
chemist the day before. Evans told Spedding that his friend Buck Coovet had
an opening at Iowa State College for a physical chemist, and Evans even

Syee, “Prologue,” 1988, 5-7; Frank H. Spedding, interview with Harry A. Svec,
Ames, lowa, September 1984, transcript in Spedding Papers, 3-4. Fora vary detailed account
of the trip abroad see one of the chapters in Edith Landin‘s possession called “Year in
Europe—1934-35." This manuscript of several chapters was dictated to Ms, Landin, Spedding’s
assistant, hired to help him prepare a book he wanted to publish on his life. Unfortunately.
Spedding died before he could publish the wotk. Dr. Spedding’s daughter has given this
author permission to use material from this book in this dissertation, It was dictated in the
late 70s and early 80s and muck of the material is duplicated in the Calciano interviews.
‘The “book” fs a collection of chapters with some paged, but none arranged in a definite order
{hereafter cited a3 Spedding Manuscript).

a *spedding, Latte tn > Harold McCoy, Joe 8, 1986 and Januncy 20, 1937; Letter from
Harold McC , Spedding, $s, McCoy’s only demand for Spedding
rare earths Was that he continue in the aie low temperature research, a vescench field of
none of the other eight to ten receivars of McCoy's langess.



46
March, Spedding met an inorganic chemist at the University of California, Los
Angeles, Charles Coryell, who specialized in radioactive fission products on
cyclotrons and offered him the division of fission products. Milton Burton,
from New York University took over the radiation damage section. The
fourth group, analytical chemistry, was headed by George Boyd who was
already at the University of Chicago. Later, Compton added John Chipman
from MIT to head up the meiallurgical studies at Chicago.9¢

Summary

From 1939 to February 1942, stiides were made in scientific studies of
uranium, even though there had been no chain reaction, uranium in only
gtam quantities was available for experimentation, and knowledge of the
chemistry of uranium and its byproducts was virtually nonexistent. But some
subtle changes in uranium research and funded research in general had
eccurred, Scientists arguing from 1939 until early 1941 could not convince the
government to fund scientific research, By the énd of 1947 though, Vannevar
Bush, the engineer /scientisi, had convinced President Roosevelt that it was

came to respect him as @ great scientist. They felt that it was his youth and ambition that
caused the early problems of not crediting his staff with discoveries or not being the necessary
team player (Hewlett and Anderson, 90; Sames Franck,” Spedding manuscript, 2-3),

S8rank H. Spedding, “Charles D, Cotyell” Spedding Manuscript, {1]; Charles
Coryell, “Letter to pa H, Spedding on cmployinentTM Aart 7, 1942, Spedding Papers; Frank
H Spedding, eae to Charles Coryell lon Employment.” April 10, Ti peas i Aan
Charles Coryell, "Letter to Fran! on Employment,” April 24, 7 i

7 ing, interview 8 with Caen Speliding, ser 5 with iano, 16;
Spedding, is lew 8 with Calciano, 11; Milton Burton, “Letter from to Frank Spedding”
May 13, 1942, Spedding Papers; Spedding, interview 5 with Calciano, pp. 16-17; Milton
Burton, “Letter to Frank Spedding on Employment,” May 30, 1942, Spedding Papers;

interview 8 with Culciano, 11.; Spedding, interview 5 with Calciano, 16-17; Compton, 185. :



42

atomic bomb project. According to Spedding, Arthur Compton decided that he
needed expertise in chemistry and metallurgy to complete his project
satisfactorily. At this time very little about the chemical qualities of uranium
and its byproducts was known. Spedding was chosen as head of the Chemistry
Division, but because there was little room far the number of scientists needed,
Spedding volunteered to start chemical and metallurgical research on the
Ames campus. Spedding later related:

They had vastly underestimated the amount of chemistry that

had to be done. So that when I arrived at Chicago, they were

allowing two rooms for the chemists to do all the chemical work

and I informed [Campton] that two rooms would be woefully

inadequate. ... So I told Dr. ronipton that they had to have a lot

of chemical and metatlurgical work done immediately, and we

couldn’t do if at Chicago until we built a building and till we got

some staff together, ... But it takes time for people to pick up-and.

move, and I told him that we had a metallograph and we had a

furnace here at Ames and that we could get some of this work

going, And so after he deliberated a week or two they decided...

that I would spend half a week in Ames ... . testing out various
things that might be used in a reactor.

._ ., The.only other professor in the section was Harley A. Withelm,.an
instructor who had graduated from Iowa State in 1931. Wilhelm had held the
area together and was the College's only spectrochemist. When Spedding came
in, that was his area (oo, so he took an old spectrograph that had been ordered
in the 1920s by Anson Hayes, a physical chemist of some renown that Iowa
State had lost to industry. Spedding gave Wilhelm the area of metallurgy.99
Spedding soon found his teaching load heavy; he served on a latge number of

®%interview with Frank H, Spedding. Harley Wilhelm. and Adrian Daane, May 1967.
Wilhelm, interview with author, 1990,



55

At these meetings there is a free-for-all discussion and it is very
difficult to state just who hhas the various ideas as one man
Stimulates another. The net result is that most of our
contributions have been the result of teamwork and should not
be attributed to any one group or any one individual.12

This team approach seemed to be the key to the Ames organization.
Spedding often pointed to its role in pressing the research forward, He
believed in this approach so much that even the shop personnel gave advice
on how pieces of equipment could be modified or built322 In this instance,
Spedding was actually following the lead of the other academies at the national
level in charge of the entire project (as will be noted in a later chapter on the
academic organization) and his own experiences as a member of G. N. Lewis’
academic laboratory at Berkeley, Spedding's methods—the seminars, research
groups, and project-oriented research—may have been novel at Iowa State, but
this academic style was already characteristic of research organization
throughout the atomic bomb project.

Many of the administrative problems for Spedding throughout.the war
revolved around getting staff, bath scientific and support personnel. To obtain
his personnel, Spedding relied on his academic network of contacts. potential
scientists and others who contacted him directly, and even the military to
provide him with workers, For example, after Leslie Groves and the
Manhattan District took over the project in late 1942 and early 1943, Spedding

421Frank H. Spedding, “Report of the Amos Chemical and Metallurgical Groups from
February 20, 1942 to Dec, 23, 2943,” 2. Also, several of the people this author interviewed
indicated attended and directed these seminars and meetings. See the author's
interviews with Voigt, 1990, 4; Carlson, 1990, 5; and Wilhelm, 1999, 15,

1225rank H. Spedding, interview 6 with Elizabeth Calciano, Ames, Iowa, dictated
May 7, 1980, transcript in possession of Edith Landin, Ames, Iowa, 30.



7

ready for that night76 Spedding, cigar and all, would repeat those very scenes
in his own organization during the war and long after the war with his
infamous Sunday and later Thursday Speddinars (as they came to be known).

Spedding inhexited fom Lewis another scientific approach that would
be crucial to the development of the Ames Project: good scientists tackled
tough problems whether or not they knew anything about them. Once a
question could be formulated or what the scientists were looking for could be
identified, the problem was practically solved. ‘That philosophy was sorely
tested during the war years at Ames.77

Frank Spedding spent two years in research for Lewis without finding a
problem to publish as a thesis topic. Finally, Simon Freed, another graduate
student, just finishing his Ph.D. in the band spectra of rare earths, invited
Spedding to work with him evaluating the magnetic properties of the rare
earths at low temperatures. Lewis encouraged the experimentation but did not

place his name on any of the publications since he was not directly involved in

the research work Spedding finished his Ph.D. in May 1929, after waiting his
dissertation. There were numerous jobs for young Ph.D.s at that time, but
Lewis offered Spedding an instructorship to remain at Berkeley, a common
way for oblaining a long-term academic job at this particular institution?

7éspedding, interview 1 with Calciano, 29-41 in that interview ing admitted
to modelin he oun seminars after those of Lewis. Spedding

77 Frank H. Spedding, interview 2 with Elizabeth Caldano, transcript in possession of
Edith Landin, Ames, Iowa, nd, 76.

Spedding, interview 1 with Calclano, 20.

*Calciavo interview 1, 30-33, Generally, a bright student would be offered an
instructorship wherezpon he would work one year at a time under the instractorship. If

reappointment occurred four times, usually an assistant professorship with a three
contract was offered. ‘After onc or two terms of those assistant profetcorships, the departaient



29

The Metallurgical Project and Laboratory

The period from December 1941 to February 1942 revealed more effort
devoted to the administration of uranium research than to research itself, as
evidenced by the creation and organization of the Metallurgical Project under
Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago. Compton, author of the three
National Academy of Science reports, was akeady a committed and
distinguished physicist in the field of atomic research when called upon to
head a program coordinating theoretical studies on plutonium and building a
reactor to confirm a sustaining chain reaction58 In 1939, he heard about the

discovery of uranium fission but thought his research was far afield from
nuclear physics, When he became active in the field of cancer research though,
his friend at the University of California in Berkeley, Emest O. Lawtence,
convinced him to take another look at atomic research 89 That involvement
‘began when Jewett called upon him to head a review of recent atomic research
and its military. applications, a.task-Compton took enthusiastically. ~~:

On the afternoon of December 6, 1941, Arthur Compton first had lunch
with his new bosses Bush and Conant and then proceeded to his hotel zoom to
make arrangements for his new assignment. According to his recollections, he
spent that whole afternoon and evening on the telephone making contacts to

58Riedman, 188-190. Compinn, the son of a Presbyterian minister, was bom on
September 20, 1892, He received his doctorate from Princeton in 1916 and studied under J. I.
Thomson, the famous English physicist, where he also attended lectures

ae
Emest Rutherford, a Nobel-winning physicist. Upon his return to the United States 10,
he became a professor at Washington University in St. Louis where ke concentrated his
yesearch on x-tays. Three years later, the University of Chicago appointed him professor of
physics. In 1927, he received the Nobel Frize for work on waves and light.

SRiedman, 190.



52

Towa State in order to work on the secret project at the Chicago Metallurgical
Laboratory! The government gave Priley security clearance in late February
or early March so that Spedding could release information on the nature of the
research work at Chicago and Ames. The other top-level administrator
allowed access to classified information was Dean Harold V. Gaskill, dean of
the Industrial Sciences Division, under whose jurisdiction rested all war-time
esearch projects at Iowa State College.!12

The original agreement with Compton guaranteed that any personnel
hired in Ames would work there for three months and move to Chicago when
space was available, Since it took longer than anticipated to hire men, find
space at Chicago, and build the buildings to house the Ames and Chicago
chemical staffs and because the Ames group was progressing well at the end of
the three months, Compton agseed to allow the supporting laboratory to
continue at Ames under contract for six additional months."8 Spedding also
had difficulty convincing scientific staff to work on the project at Chicago

‘because many of the chemical scientists were suspicious of atomic research.

The project, locally called “Compton's Folly,” did not immediately attract large

Ti charles B. Filey, “Letter to Arthur Compton on Releasing Spedding for Duties
with the Metallurgical Laboratory,” February 28, Ames Laboratory Papers,

112Frank H. Spedding, interview 6 with Elizabeth Calcio, May 7, 1980, transect i in

possession of Edith Landin, Ames, lowa, 3. Gaskill's title was Director of Special Reseai
for Jowa State . (HL. ¥. Gaskill, Letter to Major A. V. Peterson Listing all Peaomal

who can Sipn Forms; ‘August 7, 1943, MED Files, Record Group 77, Nationa] Archives,
Washington, DC}

13g pedding, interview 5 with Calciano, 13; A. H, Compton, “Letter to S, K. Allison on
Reorganization of the Metallurgical Chemistry Section;* June 5, 1942, the Ames Laboratory

Papers, 1.


49

fellowship at lowa State University but lacked the number of courses in
chemistry to enroll. Turning to his other love, athletics, and to support a new
wife, he took consecutive high school positions teaching science and coaching.
Later, he held a less than successful college coaching position in Helena,
Montana. He returned to Drake in the summer of 1927 and took enough
chemistry courses to qualify for an assistantship at Jowa State. The family
stayed in Des Moines while he went to Ames alone, since the assistantship
could not support a wife and baby daughter. In 1928, he was awarded an
instructorship that enabled the entire family to move to Ames,i01
Wilhelm initially worked for Anson Hayes, the head of physical
chemistry and a well-known metallungist in iron and steel technologies. Hayes
left Iowa State College in January 1928, for industry, leaving one of his former
graduate students, W. H. Jennings, in charge of physical chemistry. Because
Wilhelm showed, an interest in spectrochemistry, he inherited the newly
ordered specttograph that was to have gone to Hayes. Heearned hisPhD.
“degree in December 1931, after writing his thesis on band spectra of magnesium
sulfide and lead sulfide.102 Wilhelm remained at Iowa State as an instructor,
turning down a job in Nebraska because it left him no time for research.103
Wilhelm remained as an instructor for several years because as a graduate of
Towa State, the president of the College refused to promote him or give him

snsoy viel Recalls the Early Days.” Ames Laboratory Changing Times (August,
02Withelm, interview with author, 1990; R. M. Hughes, Graduates with the Dactorate,
Studies of the Graduate College, No. 1 (Ames, JA: Iowa State College, 1939), 20.

03withelm, interview with author, 1990. 5; Harley A. Withelm, interview with
Laura Kline, 1987, transcript in Robert W. Parks and Elten Sorge Parks Library, Ames, Iowa,
5



26

Bush conferred with Roosevelt and Vice President Henry Wallace whom he
had already briefed on uranium progress earlier in the summer. He outlined
British reseatch achievements, the costs of building a production plant, what
little was known of German research, and the time needed to produce a
weapon. Bush was fold to expedite the work in every way but not to proceed
on building a production plant since that would need more discussion and a
different organization to carry out Policy considerations on thesé matters were
to be restricted to Roosevelt, Wallace, Bush, Conant, Secretary of War Henry
Stimson, and Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, transferring
responsibilities from the Uranium Committee to a new, more secretive group
around the president. The specter of German domination played a major role
in the actions on the part of Bush and the president. By the fall of £941, both
men had seen the results of Hider’s campaign and coupled with reports from.
British research and reports from those escaping from Germany who insisted
the country was progressing on atomic research, their inclinations were much
~stronger-to support an-ultimate weapon. ~ Bush actually gained permission’ to “~
finalize the bond between science and national security in that meeting 53
Bush received the third report on November 6, 1941, and the President
was sent his copy on November 27. Compton had traveled extensively in
October of that year to gather the information needed for this third and most
important report54 In that third report, he issued a clear call to build a bomb,

Hewlett and Anderson, 45-46.

Smyth, 46-49; Rhodes, 373-376, 386-387; Compton, 53. It was probably the Mark
Oliphant visit that helped Compton and several other Americans including Conant, Busiy's
vight-hand man issue a clear call for 2 bomb, Oliphant from Britain toured the United States
in the late summer and early fall of 1941 as an strong advocate for building a bomb. He
relayed news of British research at a mecting of the Urenium Committee in August, using the



28

committee chaired by Arthur H, Compton of the University of Chicago,
charging it to study the military importance.of wraninm and decide upon the
level of expenditure needed for a concentrated government-supported effort in
uranium research.4?

Shortly after a meeting in May 1941, the committee ptesented its first
report recommending an intensification of the research effort for at least six
months.*? Later that summer, an appropriation of $267.000 was made for
uranium research, partly because of that fitst report and partly because of the
reports on British research 51 A second report produced recommendations on
the engineering aspects of uranium research in the summer of 194152

A third report was commissioned and delivered in the fall of 1941, but
not before Bush. at a high-level presidential meeting on October 9, 1941, was
given a free hand to investigate the possibilities of making an atomic bomb.

Smyth, 51. Arthur Compton was a Dhysicst already of some renown and the
brother of Karl Compton, President of MIT, who had already had some interest in
this general fiekd. .

S0Rhodes, 365. The committee detailed three military applications of research: _
production of radioactive materials {o spread on enemy territory, a power source for
submarines and other ships, and explosive bombs. The committee also developed a timetable:
a year was needed to produce and test the radioactive materials, the power source would
tequire three years after a chain reaction was created, and bombs could not be ready before
1945. A priority was placed on obtaining a sustaining chain reaction.

*lgmyth, 51. Briggs was still in charge of the ‘budget recommendations for the
Uranium Committee. He made pless not just from the first report but based also on work that
had been undertaken in by MAUD. Briggs argued for continning the first objective of
a chain reaction. But he claimed that isotope separation was crucial for any
applications of uranium production and suggested that a chain reaction could occur in an
airplane~<arricd bomb device.

S2tTew/lett and Anderson, 29. Compton traveled to South America that summer so
William D. Coolidge, a physical chemist recently retired from General Electric, was given
the charge to add some engineers to the committee and review the first report, Their review
was sent to Bush on July 11, 1941, and supported the first report's recommendations, The
emphasis was still on creating a chain reaction rather than a bomb.



38

Spedding took the offer and, of course, expected to remain at Berkeley
permanently. Unfortunately, the Depression intervened in October 1929, and
Spedding had to settle for a series of one and two year temporary
appointments, each adding to his knowledge about his specialties~~
spectroscopy and rare earths—but none adding to his job security or to his
financial situation, In 1931, he received the prestigious but not lucrative
National Research Fellowship, awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation, for two
years of full-time research at Berkeley In 1932, he received his old job back
fom G. N. Lewis for two more years at the salary of $1,000 per year? By this
time, it had become common for the younger men to take assoclateships for
about one-half of an instructors pay.8)

The year 1933 was an auspicious year for the young chemist, even.
though he stil! had no permanent academic appointment. Early that year,
Spedding had obtained some samples of rare earths from a professor in Illinois
and set about to prove a theory: the fine structures of the rare earth bands
depended upon the adjacent atoms. in. the crystal in-which the rare earths were
Placed. For this work he was awarded the Langmuir Prize for Chemistry in
1933.% Spedding was invited to receive the award and make a speech af the

examined the person's credentials and if it wanted that person as a permanent faculty
member, an associate professorship with tenure was offered.

*svec, "Prologue," 1988, 4,
"Spedding, interview 1 with Calctano, 35.

82<Frank Harold Spedding Turns 80," 3; Svec, 1988, 4-5. dding was the third
chemist to win the award, following Oscar K. Rice and Linus Pate Be oe ee ae

31 to win it, The next year the award name was changed to the Award in Pure Chemistry of
cal Sociely and awarded to young chemists under 35,

the American Chem



28

be used in a practical, military way to protect the country’s security. Roosevelt
retumed his copy to Bush two months later on January 19, 1942, with a note

attached that said:

Vv B. OK —zetumned—t think you had best keep this in your safe.
EDR:

Bush took action long before that returned note. Lyman Briggs, at
Bush’s request, called membets of the Uranium Committee to come to
Washingtor on December 6, 1941, to talk about reorganization of the uranium
work. Bush sent more detailed letters, dated December 13, 1941, to each of the
primary administrative men to be involved in the expanded government-
supported project. A planning board with Eger V. Murphzee, a young chemical
engineer as head, would oversee engineering planning studies and supervise
any pilot plant efforts. Bush appointed three program chiefs in charge of
physics and chemistry research: Harold Urey fo handle separation by diffusion
and centrifuge methods as well as heavy water studies; Exnest Lawrence in
charge of small-sample preparation, electromagnetic separations. and
plutonkum (element 94); and Arthur Compton with responsibility for the
chain reaction to produce plutonium and oversee weapons theory. Two weeks
after Pearl Harbor, the first large contract was awarded to Lawrence for $400,000
to study electromagnetic separation techniques§7 Arthur Compton went back
to the University of Chicago to create the Metallurgical Laboratory. ‘The

uranium research project had begun in earnest.

56Rhodes, 388,
Hewlett and Anderson, 49-52.



44

subjects. In fact, evety Graduate Catalog from 1920-21 until 1946-47 made the
following announcement about the purpose of graduate study at Iowa State:

Jowa State is a technical institution. Its Graduate College offers to
qualified students the opportunity to pursue advanced courses
and to undertake research in techmology and those branches of
science that find their application in industry.

Tn 1937 when Spedding was hired, some basic scientific research was
being conducted, although it tended to be primarily in agricultural areas. As
far as equipment and research facilities were concerned, Spedding later
recounted his version of Iowa State’s condition:

Wher I arrived in 1937, anly a fraction of the building was
reasonably and adequately equipped, and many rooms did not
have standard izboratory equipment. Instead they had sawhorses
with planks on top and a shelf underneath to hold glassware. The
glassware was protected by a chintz curtain hanging down from
the planks, These rooms were under-wired and the lighting was
one cord from the ceiling with a bare eleciric light bulb. There
was {sic} almost no wall plugs. As far as equipment was
concerned, there was little of it. As far as I could teli when I
arrived in 1997, the building had never been repainted since
1912:

58frank H. Spedding, interview 3 with Elizabeth Caleiano, Ames, Iowa, July 1979,
transcript in possession of Edith Landin, 1,

4lowa State C of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Announcement of the Graduate
Division, Ames, lowa, 1920-21, 11. Each year the bulletin explained that no major advanced
degree offerings were made in the liberal arts areas. According to a gentlemen's agreement,
the University of Iowa in Iowa City was to Randle those areas; Iowa State was supposed to
offer only applied courses in its chemical and physical sciences also. The head of the Iowa
State chemistry department though resisted that ruling and managed to attract men of the
caliber of Henry Gitman, an internationally known organic chemist, as well as Spedding by
disregarding that gentlemen's agreement.

Spedding, interview 3 with Calciano, 3; Svec, interview with author, 1991, The
chemistry building had bumed in 1912, and Conver as chair of the depariment had built a
beautiful new building, but he put ait the funding into the building: there was not enough
money to fumish it adequately.



20

Then, Sachs quoted from a series of lectures prepared by F. W. Aston in
honor of Lord Rutherford on the theory of atomic research. The book, Forty
Years of Atomic Theory reviewed the progress of atomic research in England and
other countries. Sachs read the last paragraph of that work to Roosevelt:

There are those about us gto say that such research should be

stopped by law, allegin, t man’s destructive powers are alread

large cnet $0, no doabt, the more elderly and ape-like of om

prehistoric ancestors objected to the innovation of cooked food

and pointed out the grave dangers attending the use of the newly

discovered agency, fire. Personally, I think there is no doubt that

subatomic energy is available all around us and that one day man

will release and control its almost infinite power. He cannot use
it exclusively in blowing up his next door neighbor.24

Roosevelt evidently got the point of Sachs’ presentation.
The President remarked, “Alex, what you are after is to see that

the Nazis don't blow us up.”
I said, “Precisely,” and he then called in General Watson . .. and

he said, “This requires action”85

Early government sapport—The uranium committees
Waison organized an informal committee, first selecting the two
military men most concemed with science—-Lt, Colonel Keith Anderson for
“the Amy and Commander Gilbert Hoover for the Navy—to serve on the
comuniitee. He appointed Dr. Lyman J. Briggs, director of the Bureau of
Standards, the nations’ government physics laboratory as the chairman of the
committee. Sachs sent a letter to Eugene Wigner, a respected physicist to help

S4gachs, 9.

35Sachs, 9.
36Sachs, 9; Hewlett and Anderson, 19-20.



67
reduction experiments with aluminum, magnesium, and caicium, resulted in
litle success. During the early weeks of July 1942, the problem of the
crucibles was finally solved when several successful uranium castings were
made with graphite crucibles, resulting in no uranium sticking to the
Staphite.15! The biggest problem remaining then was the lack of uranium
metal to cast in Ehe new crucibles. No process had been developed to supplant
the processes in existence, methods that were expensive, unpredictable, and
still producing only gram quantities. ;

The situation was so bad that the idea began to circulate around Chicago
that pethaps some pure metal could be used in the core of the experimental
pile and compounds—oxides, chlorides or fluorides—could be placed on the
perimeter. Coincidentally, in the summer of 1942, someone working on the

calutron electromagnetic separation processes at Berkeley brought some
uranium tetrafluoride (UF4) to an administrative meeting at Chicago to

_discuss the possibilities of using this fluoride or an oxide of urz
outside of the pile core at Chicago. Spedding looked at the two-inch cube that
probably had been produced at Harshaw Chemical Company in Cleveland and
wondered if using a salt that produced no oxygen could produce metallic
uranium. In the normal reduction experiments oxygen had been the greatest

150Deane, “Research Notebook, way 2, 1942, July 6, 1942, July 27 1942; Wayne Keller,
qesech Notebook.” July 8, 1942, July 10, 1942, July 12-18, 1942, Ames Laboratory Papers, 46-

151R H. Spedding, Report of the Ames Chemicat and Metallurgical Group for the
Week of July 2, 1942," Ames Laboratory Papers.



SL

culminated in the now-famous and often repeated sickroom episode.
Compton called his main scientists to Chicago and when they arrived on
January 24, 1942, they were ushered into the bedroom where Compton was
battling the flu and a fever, He argued to move the site to Chicago to
concentrate all the research from the various laboratories. He tried to convince
the others at the meeting—Leo Szilard from Columbia, Ernest Lawrence from
Berkeley, Luis Alvarez from the M. 1. T. Radiation Laboratory, Richard Doan
from Phillips Petroleum Research Laboratory, and Norman Hilberry from
New York University—the merits of a Chicago location, Compton had already
received enthusiastic support from the president and vice president of the
University of Chicago; there were more men to draw from in the central part

of the country since there were fewer involved in wat-related work, and
‘Chicago was centrally located between the east and west coasts, After endless
discussion, the physically and mentally exhausted Compton, the noted
consensus builder, made an arbitrary decision: the site would be Chicago and

" those at the meeting should join him in the research efforé there ‘The only
objection came front Lawrence, and Compton later recounted that objection:

“You'll never get the chain reaction going here. The whole
tempo of the University of Chicago is too slow.”

“We'll have the chain reaction going here by the end of the year,”

ic turned again to centralizing the research at one site. Compton and Lawrence dominated
Hb ciecuseiontand both seed tat area Gt Ste. Compton and Lawrence dominated

if not the whole project. They had agreed that the | cyclotrons at Berkeley could
bare moved elsewhere, and Lance would remain in Berleley to oversee that part of the
research. However, Columbia and Princeton scientists did not want fo move their operations
either.

Compton, 80-81; Rhodes, 399.



30

coordinate his new enterprise. He called Fermi at New York and George G.
Pegram, a physicist friend at Princeton, to get advice and talk of plans for the
future. On December 7, 1941, he remembered going to New York to talk to
Fermi and his colleagues about the direction of research and to get their
assurances that the group would work with him. Out of great respect for
Compton as scientist, they readily agreed to support the project.60

The $-1 Committee met in Washington on December 18, 1941, and Bush
announced the official revamped uranium research organization. Compton
sent Bush a memorandum on December 20, 1941, detailing his plans and
proposing a preliminary budget for the project, For the time being. the project
research would be centered in Columbia, Chicago, Princeton, and Berkeley. His
budget of several million was approved when it would have been
unfathomable only a short time ago.61

From December to February, Compton was immersed in organizational
plans and problems. In Januaty, he began a series of meetings to discuss

- centalizing the efforts at one site rather than have research’sites at Columbia,’

Princeton, Berkeley, and Chicago.62 The various discussions, often heated,

. Compton, 72-73. Laura Fermi, 185. Laura Fermi summed up the respect for Compton
in the following way: “Compton was a thoughtful and considerate person, who took no step
without weighing its effects upon others. Perhaps because of this, whenever he expressed an
opinion, it was interpreted as an order and accepted without much comment”

StRhodes, 398; Hewlett and Anderson, §3-54. At Columbia and Princeton the building
of a pile and corresponding physical measurements would ire 80 men and $340,000 for six
months; Chicago needed 150 people and $278,000; and Berkeley wanted 150 men and $650,000
to prepare U235 and plutonium. Compton asked for another $500,000 for pile materials.

S2Hewlett and Anderson, 53-55. The first meeting occurred at Chicago on January 3,
1942, and the best he could accomplish was a promise to continue existing work at ihe various
sites. The second meeting at Columbia on January 18 at least developed a preliminary

im timetable: by July 2, 1942 to determine whether a chain reaction was
Fadary 1943 to achieve the first chain reaction, by January 1944 to extract plaitenen eacoent
94) feom uranitan, and by January 1945 fo have a bomb. In the afternoon of that meeting. the



63

Lawrence from the University of California personally contacted Alexander at
his company. Shortly thereafter, they signed a contract and the company —
reorganized to produce large quantities of metals for the Metallurgical Project.
Because the company had little equipment such as furnaces and also because its
metal was extzemely pyrophoric, no appreciable amount of metallic uranium
was available from them until almost November 1942,139

C. J. Rodden at the National Bureau of Standards experimented with
uranium zeduction methods involving calcium. He had been working with
the “James Process,” a method reported in 1926 in a scientific journal, which
had been developed at the University of New Hampshire while he was there.
It used calcium to reduce uranium oxide and uranium tetrachloride. Late in
August 1942, Rodden independently discovered the same process that the
Ames Project scientists had developed earlier that month.140

Waninm oxide

Urania generally came iii the forin of a oxide, and it wes well known
that a purer oxide would produce, in turn, an end product of greater purity.
Uranium oxide had been difficult to obtain since 1939 when Alexander Sachs
warned President Roosevelt that the German occupation of Belgium might
ruin chances to procure Belgian uranium oxide from the Congo. By the time
Sachs was authorized to approach Belgium by Dr. Brigg’s Uranium Committee,
Germany had invaded Belgium and taken over 500 tons of uranium into its

159gmyth, 94; Peter P. Alexander to Harley A. Wilhelm, August 2, 1968, Wiheln
Papers.
‘40yilhelm. “Development of Uranium Metal,” 38-63.



Si

because he was alzeady working with oxides and carbines and Ray Hoxeng for
uranium coatings studies.08 In April, C F Gray finished his Ph.D, under
Wilhelm and joined the small group to work in castings. In June 1942, Wayne
Keller, a former student of Spedding’s at Comell, joined the project to work
with uranium metal reduction. Rounding out the early group were Amos
Newton from Eastman Kodak, W. H. Sullivan from the New England Zinc
Company in Pennsylvania, and Adolph Voigt of Smith College, all men
originally from a reseatch group that had been using the cyclotron to produce
radioactive materials at the University of Michigan At Ames, they
contributed their expertise as group leaders in the various non-metalimgical
chemical research areas, particularly in studies of plutonium and radiation220
In early February 1942, Spedding contacted President Charles Friley at
Towa State Callege for clearance to establish the Ames Project, He had
previously received permission from him to spend several weeks in Chicago
in January. In late February, Friley released Spedding from half his duties at

18Fulmer, Appendix C: List of Scientific Personnel of the Ames Project under the
Manhattan District; Wilhelm, interview with author, 1990,-6-7.

199Fulmer, Appendix C; Wilhelm, interview with authos, 1990, 6-7; Spedding,
interview with Svec, 1984, 15; Wilhelm, interview with Kline, 1987, 15.

NOThese three men, all recent PR.D.s, were students of Kasmit Fajang, a renown
sadiation chemist at the University of Michigan, whom Spedding was trying to get into the
project, either on a subcontract at Michigan or at Chicago where he could set up a group thete.
His students came to Ames only temporarily while Fajans was in the process o: t geiting
securil Slearance, Unfortunately, hecanse ct his Polish descents he yes never J and
Speci cept his students, incorporating them as grou, rs at Ames, {Adolph Voigt,
interview with author, July 1990, Ames, lowe, & “Adolph Voigt Looks Back,” Ames
Laboratory Changing Scene Deceniber 1981, 3; Correspondence between Kasmir Fajans and Frank
Spedding, May 11, 1942, May 22, 1942, May 14, 1942, May 23, 1942, May 29, 1942, ume 24, 1942,
and Angust 10, 1942, Spedding Papers; Correspondence with Dr, Arnos Newton, May 23, 1942,

Dr. William

Jane 3, 1942, and June 20, ing Papers; Correspondence
iva May 23102, Moy 98, toads and eek 1942, Spedding Papers). Also see Frank H.

Spedding, “Auditing,” Spedding Manuscript, [5].



68

barrier in reducing the uranium to large pieces of pure metal. He took the
black back to Ames in late July and gave it to the metallurgical group to test.152

Wayne Keller, one of the men under Wilhelm, took the block and began
the historic experiments to reduce the tetrafluoride with calcium or some
other salt to uranium metal. On August 3, 1942, he recounted the first
reduction attempt in his research notebook:

The fluoride and calcium were ground together in a mortar and
Placed in an iron pipe as a crucible. The crucible and charge were
placed with proper packing in a quartz tube and the whole
evacuated. A thermocouple was placed between the quartz tube
and the furnace coil. The furnace was heated by 110 volts at 12
anipe.

The temperature increased from 30°C at 4:00 p,m. to 370°C at
4:38 pm. At that time the Pressure rose to about one-half an
atmosphere suddenly, then began to drop again in a few
moments. . .', The temperature was read and was found to have
visen from 370°C to 540°C in four minutes... AE 600°C heating
‘was discontinued.

When the furnace was almost at room temperature argon was
introduced, the furnace opened, and the crucible remov:

The material in the ctucible was found to have fused, and a
Jump of quite compact, but low-density metallic material-was-
found in the bottom of the crucible... The large block on the
bottom was sawed in two, and inside was found one large button
of very pure looking metallic uranium..., This button weighed
about 20 grams.13

182p, Hy, Spedding. “Interview with Barton C, Hacker,” October 21, 1980, Ames, lowa,
transcript in possession of Edith Landin, Ames, Iowa, 10; Hewlett and Anderson, 87-88;
Spedding, interview with Svec, 1984, 15; Spedding to Metcalf, May 11, 1945, 2.

B8Wayne Keller, ‘ Research Notebook,” Ans ist 3, 3942, 58-60. earns a
more experiments were run aiming at a greater yi and more compact ingot.
August 7, with several adjustments, an ingot of 82 was discovered on the bottom of the
gracible, the largest single ingot to date. (Keller, “Research Notebook,” August 7, 1942, 69).
Sce also AH, Compton, “Metallurgical Project Report for the Month ending August 15, 1942,"
Report No. CC-238, in Ames Laboratory Papers, 5-8. Spedding reviewed the work also in a

t called “Metal Production” Metallurgical Laboratory Report No. R414, November 25,
2 in Ames Laboratory Papers, For a review of the experiments see Withelm, Keller,



50

tenure.10¢ Finally, in 1940, Wilhelm was offered a higher salaried job in
industry and to keep him, Coover obtained for him an assistant professorship
and a salary of $3,200.10 In 1937, Spedding, replacing Jennings as head of
physical chemistry. took the spectrograph for his own research work and left
the metallurgical area of the department completely to Wilhelm, a fortunate
circumstance in the long run for Wilhelm since he became Spedding’s expert
in that area for the Ames Project 106

After hiting Wilhelm for metallurgical studies, Spedding attempted to
find other personnel to staff his Ames operation, He appointed LB, Johns, a
researcher with a physical chemistry background, to oversee plutonium
research, even though at the time he was a faculty member in plant
chemistry.” Graduate students who were working with or had previously
worked under Spedding, Wilhelm, and Johns were the next most obvious
people to work into the project. Spedding and Wilhelm contributed one
student each in February—Adzian Daane for metallography and casting studies

104withelm and Spedding both recounted in various interviews that Hughes as
president of Iowa State wanted to bring in outside talent for positions rather than hire inbred
ity members. If Coover raised Wilhelm to an assistant professor, he would receive tenure
in three years and remain as a permanent faculty member. So it seemed to be common that
people in Wilhelm’s position would remain instructors or leave. (Wilhelm, interview with
line, 1987, 12; Wilhelm, interview with author, 1990, 5; Spedding, interview with Svec,

105withelm, interview with Kline, 1987, 12; Wilhelm, interview with the author,
1990, 145 “Wilhelm Recalls the Early Days,” 6. According to Wilhelm, Friley who had
Teplaced Hughes as president kept the same rule on inbreeding, so Wilhelm must have been
an important asset in the department for Coover to get the professorship for him, He had
graduate students working under him, had taught all the metallurgical courses for engineering
students 2s well as a ceramic engineering course. He was also the only other faculty member
in physical chemistry.
8 106 Withelm, interview with author, 1990, 4-6; Spedding. interview with Svec, 1984, 7-

10? Spedding, interview 5 with Calciano, 1-2; Spedding, interview with Svec, 1984, 15.



27
thus moving scientific research into practical, military applications tied to
national security. The objective of the program in scientific research would
simply be: ““to consider the possibilities of an explosive fission reaction with
Ungs."85 A bomb with enough destructive power could be created by gathering
together a mass of Usa5. How much destructive power was still unknown, but
something on the order of a few hundred tons of INT was possible. The
teport evaiuated methods of isotope separation including gaseous diffusion
which the British were committed to and the centrifuge system in
development at Columbia, It estimated that bombs could be ready in three to
four years. Costs were difficult to estimate, but the most expensive part of the
process, the separation of the isotopes, could cost $50 to $100 million and the
production of bombs could cost as much as $30 million. The report was just
what Bush wanted and could have been the impetus to push America
headlong into the uranium research project except that Bush had zeceived
approval fo proceed a full month before this report. It did verify, after the fact,
what Bush had convinced Roosevelt of in the October 9 meeting: selence could

word “bomb” yery cleatly. He solicited assistance from the United States because Britain,
according to him, did not have the resources, an estimated $25 million, to build a bomb. Since
he was not immediately effective with the Uranitim committee, he decided to attempt to
convince the most enthusiastic scientist he knew in America, Emest ©. Lawrence. And
convince him he did. Lawrence coniacted Arthur Compton at Chicago shortly after
Oliphant’s visit and repeated his conversation with Oliphant. A special meeting was set in
Chicago on er 25, 1941, because Lawrence was to be in town to speak on the occasion of
an honorary to be bestowed upon James Conant, the chairman of the NDRC. The three
men met and a heated discussion agreed to push uranium research in the United States.
Conant went back to report the meeting to Bush, and shortly thereafter the third report was
commissioned. Compton described that meeting as the start of the wartime atomic Tesearch

rogram. Conant, in his secret history of the Manhattan Project, indicated that men tke

iphant helped turned the tide in the American uranium research enterprise.

Rhodes, 386,



Al

offered to write a letter of reference. Spedding traveled on to Ames, fowa and
talked to Coover who offered him the job on the spot. Spedding tells the rest

of the story:

[Coover} was a horse trade and he said, "Now I can give you an
appointment if you take assistant professorship.”

And Thad guts enough to say, “No, I’ve been seven years on
temporary appointments and I’m looking for a job with tenure, so
I won't take anything less than associate » professor

So he said, *FH have to go to the Board of Regents.”

I said, “Fine. I'll go on West and you can wire me."87

Spedding traveled to Yellowstone National Patk and after a week of not
hearing, he decided to move on to Berkeley. They started to leave, but first
Ethel stopped at the batizcom. Spedding remembered:

While she was in there, I was over looking at the bulletin board,
There were a lot of telegraph messages on it, There was a note on
there to Dr, Spinolza, and I read it, And it said: mis granted
you an appointment. And I thought it sounds just like what I'm
looking for, but the wrong name, Anyway, 1 got on the phone
and called Coover, and it was his message; they fust got the name
all wrong. Tt was just a minute's difference of whether I'd got it or

- not... . L-wouldn't normally ‘have chosen the place: I was" * *
desperate; I hadn’t been able to get a job except fellowships for
seven years, and I thought, “Well I can go there and build up
Physical Chemistry and when things really open up, 1 can go to
another schooi.”®!

So Spedding, the nationally known chemist from Berkeley, found his
way to lowa State College in 1937 to take over the physical chemistry section.
In early 1942, Arthur Compton invited Frank Spedding to participate in the

S?Spedding, interview with Svec 1984, 6.
S8Spadding, interview with Svec 1984, 6. At the time, when Spedding corresponded
with his friends or colleagues, he presented Jowa State in mach better light. In a letter to

McCoy on November 10, 2937 (Spedding Papers), he said: “So far, Thave tked my new
position very mach as Iam able tp ram things just to suit myself and the research opportunities

are very good.”



58

services for other laboratories, producing thorium, cerium, and other zare
elements. Ames discovered uses of and recast metallic uranium turnings from
serap pieces shipped from around the couniry. And probably the best known
contzibution of the Ames Project—the establishment of a pilot plant to produce
metallic uranium, using two of its own methods to both reduce and cast the
metal in an old remodeled one-story house near the current-day journalism
building—continued until industry could take over the process by late July
1943.17

Uranium metal

In February 1942, several research objectives confronted the
Metallurgical Laboratory before it could produce a bomb-first. how to find a
way to produce a chain reaction using the Ugg isotope of uranium; second,
how to chemically separate plutonium from the uranium isotope in order to
produce an explosive chain reaction; and, finally, how to establish a plant to
move the processes to a large-scale production of materials necessary to create a
bomb. Spedding’s chemical division was officially responsible for the second

27 Fulmer, 12-13. See also various monthly and weekly reports produced from the
Ames Project from Fe 1942 to December 1945 for technical details of research activities.
Asam ‘of these include: OC-176, July 2, 1942 for a discussion of casting uranium in
graphite; CC-177, July 9, 1942 for a report on reduction of oxides with aluminum and
Mmagnesiura as welt a8 the production of crucibles of different materials; CC-238, August 15,
1942 when coatings on uranium were studied; CC-298, October 13, 1942 a report that included
studies of recovery of metal from casting wastes; CT-542, March 27, 1943 for a study and
review of methods in casting of uranium ingots; CC-587, April 19, 1943 when a complete write-
up of uranitm hydride studies was included; CT-751, fune 24, 1943 a study of the moisture in
lime liver materiats; CC-1524, March 10, 1944 a t on the rare gases; CT-1784, August 10,
1944 a report on the production of cerium; and CC-2398, March 17, 1945 a preliminary report on
thorium nitrate extraction from uranyl nitrate, all in the Ames Laboratory Fora
complete listing of research projects, see Fulmer, Appendis J: List of Reports ior the Ames

Proj

128 gmyth, 89; Compton, Aloniic Quest, 86-87,



59
objective, but it soon became apparent that chemical concerns were imbedded
in every aspect of the project.

Materials procurement became one of the most critical concerns of the
Metallurgical Laboratory. Uranium in its metallic form ot in a salt form of
great purity as well as graphite, beryllium, deuterium, and calcium were crucial
for the chain reaction?” Purity of the uranium presented a particularly
difficult problem. Virtually no uranium metal in its most pure form, or even
a pure enough salt or oxide, was available in eatly 1942, In late 1941, Leo
Szilard, reported to Arthur Compton that three processes existed to make
uranium metal, each producing only gram quantities: the photochemical
process developed at Westinghouse Lamp Division, the uranium-chloride
reduction method discovered by J. J. Rodden who was presently at the National
Bureau of Standards, and the calcium hydride method developed by P. P.
Alexander of Metal Hydrides at Beverly, Massachusetts.120 Most of these
methods had neither scaled up their processes to make enough uranium at a

“reasonable cost, 1 nor had they eliminated the impurities that so plagued most

early production of uranium,
Harvey C Renfschler, director of the research laboratory, and John W.

Marden, a deputy researcher, of the lamp division of Westinghouse, located in

‘USemyth, 91; Hewlett and Anderson, 65.

350), Szitard, “Memorandum for Professor A. H. Compton Summarizing My Contacts
with Firms in Connection with the Supply of Uranium Metal, Graphite, Calcium Metal,

Uranium Oxide, Uranium Carbide ra ceamit pReport No. R-? of the Chicago

Metallurgical Reports, [1943], in Ames . For a summary of the technical

characteristics of these early processes, see Proik Cc a es, “Hatly Meth Methods for Producing

Uranium Meta!,” Chapter 6 in Uraniue: Technolé, General Survey, by J. E. Verne and J.C

‘Warner, National Nuclear Energy Series, Division VI, vol. 2A (Washington, DC: Atamic
IY:

Energy Commission; Elmsford,

Microforms. international, 1977, microfilm), 142-150,



7A -
large-scale production plant. Luckily for the Ames operation, the Metallargical
Laboratory had ordered two 40,000 watt reduction furnaces for what they called
“Site B,” but when the Ames pilot plant needed to be established as a
production facility, those furnaces were diverted to Ames. Mixers and grinders
for processing metals like calcium and later magnesium and vacuum casting
appaiatus were also purchased from various producers using contract money
from the Manhattan Engineer District, an Army Corps of Engineers operation,
which took over this part of the Ames Project in late 1942,165

The Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1)—December 2, 1942

‘While these arrangements were still being worked out in the fall of 1942,
the Ames group continued to reduce metal in the Chemistry Building,
beginning a uranium shipping program to Chicago. The University of Chicago
teceived two tons of the metal from Ames for the Stagg Field experiment that
occurred on December 2, 1942. Westinghouse and Metal Hydrides also each
shipped two tons to Chicago. ~~ ~ ~ Oe

Most of the research and production work that Iowa State undertock to
this point sexpported the critical chain reaction or pile experiment at the
University of Chicago. Spedding, in his capacity as head of the chemistry
section, was present as one of the few invited guests to witness the historic
event. Enrico Fermi, a physicist at Chicago, designed the experiment
originally, making all the necessary calculations including everything fom

165withelm, interview with Kime, 1988, 7; Wilhelm, telephone conversation with
author, 1989,



47

imperative to the survival of the free world to invest in building atomic

-bombs. The original requests by the immigrants were ignored, partly because
they were not US, citizens, but partly because the government was not ready to
accept the idea that scientific research was necessary fo protect national security.
The turning point came partly because of the British who convinced many
American scientists that science could be used in the development of a
weapon, and, in turn, those American scientists convinced the American
government bureaucrats that science had a practical goal, in this instance at
least, However, in February 1942, many other problems awaited the scientists
at Chicago and the newly organized Ames Project, problems challenging both
scientific research and the administration of that scientific research.



23

to Columbia University for continuation of the Fermi-Szilard experiments for
a chain reaction. The committee continued to operate in the same form until
the summer of 1947, when it was enlarged, renamed the Uranium Section or
&-1 Committee, and placed under the Office of Scientific Research and.
Development with subcommittees formed on uranium isotope separation,
fheory. power production, and heavy water.

After a year, NDRC showed some definite weaknesses since it acted
primarily as a research organization, with little power in engineering aspects of
the uranium problem. As a solution, Bush founded an umbrella organization
to coordinate all scientific research related to national defense. On June 28,
1941, an Executive Order was signed instituting the Office of Scientific Research
and Development (OSRD) within the Office for Emergency Management
directly under the President of the United States. Bush became director of this
new organization and took with him the Committee on Uranium. James
Conant replaced Bush as head of NDRC, which became a division of OSRD
delegated to make recommendations on reseatch and development. Bush
understood well the rearrangement of authority because he stated in an
interview later in his life: “l knew you couldn't get anything done in that

damn town unless you organized under the wing of the president:"45

research creating a successful submarine detector and in the 1920s experimented with analog
cal machines, He rose to the Vice Presidency of MIT and moved to the Camegie
Institntion as president in 1939 to become closer to the hub of governnsent work.

4Weart and Szilant, 117.
‘Smyth, 51; Hewlett and Anderson, 41; Kavles, 299-301; Kavles, 381.



66

compounds like uranium tetrafluoride, and using the material for research
experiments to produce a purer metal.

The Discovery and Development of the Ames Process

The discovery of the Ames Process to develop metallic uranium gave
credence to both the administrative apparatus of the Ames Project and the
research and development expertise of the Ames scientists. ‘The laboratory
worked as a team on the many problems that Spedding brought from his
meetings in Chicago. One of the interesting things about uranium at the time
was the incorrect assumption that uranium could be reduced by the same
Processes a8 those used for the elements around it on the periodic chart. Early
in 1942, the Ames Project as well as other laboratories thought that the oxides
of tranium would reduce to form a salt slag and clean metal Unfortunately,
uranium did not behave in a predictable way. First, the Ames group
experimented with the oxide derivatives of uranium in order to produce
"metallic uranium through a hydiogeri reduction, but without tremendous
success.147 The oxides presented temperature-melting problems, casting
difficulties, and tended to corrode the normal crucibles made from berylium,
magnesia, and graphite.148 By June 1942, attempts to reduce the uranium oxide
with carbon in a hydrogen atmosphere also only partially succeeded.149 Other

197F_ H. Spedding, “Report on Chemical Project at Ames, March 6-12, 1942," Spedding.
Papers; Adrian Daane, “Research Notebook,” March 31. 1942, Ames Laboratory Papers.
1485, H, Spedding, “Report of the Chemical Work Done at Ames up to April 13, 1942,"
Spedding Fapers.
M49Daane, “Research Notebook" June 2, 1942,



$4

possession, The shipment of ore from the Congo by then had ceased because of
the wat hostilities.14t

By January 1942, the quantity of uranium oxide needed to produce a
chain reaction was no problem. Over 1,200 tons of the oxide were stored in a
port in New York; additional tonnage quantities were available at the Eldorado
Gold Mine in Toronto and at a chemical plant in Colorado. A total of 2,000
tons was actually available, and predictions estimated that only 150 tons of the
oxide would be necessary through 1944, Compton thought he needed only 45
tons for his early experiments in Chicago.142

However, the National Bureau of Standards had earlier ordered several
fons of uranium oxide from Canada for experimental purposes and found that
though quantity was nota problem, purity certainly was. J. J. Hoffman had
earlier discovered an ether extraction method to remove all impurities from
uranyl nitrate 43 The Metallurgical Laboratory repeated those experiments
successfully, but found that companies in North America had neither the
necessary equipment nor the desie.to purify the uranium oxide using the
ether extraction method; ether was known to be very explosive and erratic.4+
When Herbert McCoy and Herbert Anderson visited the Port Hope Refineries
of the Eldorado Mine in Canada in Aprit 1942, they posed the question of ether
extraction to them. The company claimed they could extract the meta! but only

‘lscitard “Memorandum for Professor A.H. Compton,” (6).
W2fewlett and Anderson, 65.

Msmyth, 93.

M4Compton, Atomic Quest, 93.



3

Ames, Iowa, was asked to take over the Chemistry Division of the
Mejalhugical Laboratory in Chicago. How a young professor of chemistry, who
had not been directly involved in uranium research before 1942, could be asked
to direct some of the most famous atomic chemists is puzzling at best, unless
considerable information is provided about Spedding’s background and the
situation at Iowa State College in 1942,

Frank Howard Spedding was actually uaiquely qualified to take over the
Chemistry Division. His academic preparation had been meticulous, and his
‘breadth of chemical knowledge in rare earth chemistry exemplary. Spedding
was born October 22, 1902, in Hamilton, Ontatio. Canada to American parents.
the family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan shortly after Spedding’s birth
where his father became a well-known, successful photographer. Spedding
giaduated from the University of Michigan in 1925 with a B.S. in Chemical
Engineering and an M.S, in analytical chemistry the following year. Spedding
worked under H. H. Willard and though he liked the man, he did not like the
scientific area. Early in hig studies, he received a taste of the hatd work of
experimentation. Given a 50-pound rock of pollucite or cesium ore by
Professor Willard, Spedding was told to extract cesium from it and prepare it,
preferably as a pure salt or chloride, By 1926, he gave his professor several
kilograms of the salt70 Spedding almost had his moment of glory when he

February 24, asking fox the half-time release of Spedding to work on the Metallurgical Project
(Referenced in Charles E. Frilcy, “Letter to Arthur H. Compton on Frank Spedding’s
Appointment,” February 28, 1942. Spedding Papers).

7OFrank H. Spedding, imterview 1 with Elizabeth Calciano, Ames, Iowa, April 21,
‘1971, revised Gabe ae ‘A Frank Spedding, transcript in jon of Edith Landin, Ames,
Jowa, 5-6 {hereafter cited as Spedding, interview 3 with Calciano), This serics of interviews



36

Lewis encouraged discovery and experimentation in any field of interest
‘When asked to define physical chemisiry once, G, N. Lewis was reported to
have said it was anything that interested him.74

Frank Spedding was put to work proving and disproving several of
Lewis’ far out theories > In addition to learning about experimentation,
Spedding also developed an approach to science that would be used later in the
organization of the Ames Project. Lewis did not teach chemical theory.
Instead, his students were tatight that scientists had to experiment and stand
up to sctutiny by their peers through an ongoing examination that took place
under the seminar system. Spedding later described that seminar experience
vividly. It generally met on Tuesday night from 7:30 to 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. ina
special room with one long table in the center where faculty sat and a eight-
inch platform surrounding the table where the students sat two rows deep. All
senior faculty attended. Professor Lewis with his smoky cigars continuously
filling the room often made the main speech, or a student would sometimes
Rave to present a paper and sand for criticism. After about an hour, the
moment attived that the graduate students dreaded. Lewis would call on
some unsuspecting student and ask him or her to present to the group a
summary of his research in progress. Once Lewis called upon a student and
she froze and ran from the room. Because that event somewhat disturbed
him, Lewis began to stop students on Tresday afternoon and tell them to be
ready. Later, he called major professors and told them to have their students

Pheprank Harold Spedding Turns 80,” Ames Lab Changing Scene 8, 10 (October 1982}: 2.
Spedding, interview 1 with Caiciano. 24,



2

by conquering another area of Europe, The money for graphite calculations
‘was not transferred from the amy and Navy undl February 1940.99 Events in
March renewed interest when Ihe Physical Review began reporting that in order
for a chain reaction to occur, Ugg, the lighter isotope of uranium, must be
used.(0 Several experiments helped close the gap on the possibility of a nuclear
chain reaction, but no earthshaking discoveries came from the scientific
community. Einstein. in the spring of 1940, sent yet another letter relating the
experiments at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany. Ata meeting of the
Uranium Committee in April, the émigrés still could not shake the Amny,
Navy, or the government into decisive action; the bureaucrats decided to wait
und calculations of the uranium graphite system at Columbia had been
completed before taking decisive action. At a meeting in June 1940, a request of
$40,000 was made for continued research on the Szilard-Fermi experiments at
Columbia. Before the money could be awarded though, other administrative
events affected the future of the Uranium Comumittee.4!

The organization of the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC)
on June 27, 1940, placed the Uranium Committee within a new organizational
structure*? under Vannevar Bush.4? The first contract awarded was the $40,000

smyth, 47-48,
40Hewlett and Anderson, 22.
“1Smyth, 49.

Pirvin Stewart, Organizing Scientific Research for War (Boston: Little, Brown and
Company, 1948), 8-9, NDRC was to direct and coordinated scientific weapons research by
issuing contracts to individuals, educational institutions, and industry. It was not intended to
replace the Army or Navy and its laboratories but was supposed to expand the scientific role
in national defense.

Rhodes, 356; Kevles, 293-94. Vanneyar Bush wes a technical genius, an engineer
‘who received a doctorate jointly from MIT and Harvard in 1916. He went on to conduct war



7

campus police who had handled security before the war. However, the College
still provided some services, particularly in the area of purchasing. Since the
guards and the support staff were not unionized at Iowa State during the war
period, they also participated actively in Spedding’s organizational team
concept, Guards often doubled as chauffeurs to pick up visitors who came to
examine the Ames Project facilities and sometimes even turned off the
scientific equipment at night so the scientists did not have to go back fo

campus 126

The Raw Materials Crisis in 1942

Introduction

Shorily after the organizational structure was in place, the Ames Project
became involved in both the metallurgical and chemical problems of initiating
a chain reaction. Metallurgically, Ames investigated producing sizable
amounts of uranium as well as casting it on a large-scale, particularly for the
upcoming Chica; erinient to demonstrate the feasibility of a chain
reaction Chemically, in the early years, the projact was concerned with the
basic chemistry of the relatively unknown uranium, its melting point,
viscosity, and its zeaction with other compounds The laboratory also
experimented with protective coatings for uranium, preparation of special
compounds, and reactivity of uranium and its by-products. After many of
these early problems were solved and a nuclear chain reaction had been
successfully demonstrated, Ames often engaged in consultant studies and

l26Spedding, interview 6 with Calciano. 27-28.



45
Organization of the chemical division of the Metallurgical Laboratory

Spedding’s expertise with the zare earths garnered him the division job
under Compton. Because there was not enough room at Chicaga to conduct
the needed chemical and metallurgical research, Spedding volunteered Ames
as an additonal laboratory site. Thus, he had two projects to begin—one in
Chicago and one in Ames. He spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the
University of Chicago and Thursday, Friday, Saturday. and Sunday in Ames,
making an arrangement with the station master at the Ames depot to reserve a
sleeper car every Sunday night into Chicago and one on its return on
Wednesday night.%

At Chicago, Spedding attempted to gather the best chemists he could
find from around the country. He and Axthur Compton visited Glenn Seaborg
at Berkeley and convinced him to head up plutonium studies at the University
of Chicago. The young, ambitious chemist and some of his research group
astived on April 19, 1942.97 While in California on the same visit in late

96frenk H, Spedding, interview 5 with Elizabeth Calelano, May 5, 1980, transcript in
possession of Edith Landin, Ames, Iowa, 2. Train travel was the preferred mode of travel
during the war years, There had been a regular daily train to from Chicago for several
years. Ames was a side station for Des Moines, and the Northwastern Railroad dropped off a
steeper car from Des Moines about $ p.m, dally ; it sat on the side track in Ames until the City
of San Francisco carne about midnight on it way io Chicago and picked it up. The same train
returned with a sleeper car the next morning leaving Chicago about 71 p.m, and arriving in
Armes around 5 a.m. It sat until 8 a.m. when it was taken to Des Moines, Spedding atways
reserved lower berth 5, in car 194 each week.

57Spedding, interview 5 with Calciano, 16-17; Glenn Seaborg, “Latter to Frank
iding," March 2, 1942, Spedding Papers; Frank Spedding, “Letter to Glerm Seaborg.”
‘Hy, 1942, Spedding Papers; Glenn Seaborg, *Letter to Frank Spedding,” April 9, 1942,
Spedding 4 it and Anderson, 90. Seaborg, partly due to his youth and lack of
experience in administration, had been one of the scientists overlooked when Spedding was

chosen as the head of the Chemistry Division, and according to Spedding, he gave him
several headaches during his temire as division head. Spedding had to deal with complaints
from those working under Seaborg that he did not give due credit for work. When Spedding
stepped down from the job eighteen months later, Seaborg was again overlooked and gave the
next director, James Franck, problems too, Eventually, his colleagues, including Spedding,



21

him contact interested scientists. The fitst Advisory Committee on Uranium
met on October 21 with nine in attendance.37

Teo Sailard began the session with an overview of the possibilities of a
chain reaction using uranium and graphite layered together. Edward Teller
then addressed the group, and the issue of money for funding the:project was
raised. Commander Hoover insisted upon a precise amount, and Teller told
him $6.000 would work for the first year so that the scientists could buy
graphite. The amount was agreed upon, and a report of the meeting was sent
to the President on November 1, 1939, claiming that a chain reaction was a
possibility but still unproved. The group suggested that the government
support a thorough investigation though and concentrate it in the universities
of the country. ‘The President noted the report, according to a memo from
Watson on November 17, and decided to keep it on file for future reference.3#

The government could not be pushed into any other action for several
months mainly because there seemed fo be so much debate on the feasibility of
an atomic weapon. The scientists also tended to avoid military applications
and concentrated their studies instead upon a chain reaction to develop
nuclear power. The one fear—world domination by Germany--waxed and
waned throughout those eatly months, and with it saw the rise and fall of
interest in the uranium research problem. Just when government interest
would seemingly die, Germany would cause a renewed interest in the weapon

27Sachs, 9-11; Hewiett and Anderson, 20. Briggs, Fred L, Mohler a physicist of the
Bureau of Standards, Richard Roberts a physicist of the Carnegie Institution, Sachs, Szilard,
Wigner. Bdward Teller, Anderson, and Hoaver were the atlendees.

S8Hewlett and Anderson. 20.



69

From the initial success, it was a simple matter to run a series of
experiments to refine the process and produce even larger ingots of pure
uranium. Other compounds in combination with uranium tetrafluoride were
tried in the reduction method, including sodium and uranium chloride, but
the process for reduction with calcium improved so much that by the end of
August, most of the attention turned to producing a large cast of uranium
metal.B4 In Saptember 1942, large quantities of the wranium-calcium charge
were prepared in crucibles that were made of 4-inch black steel pipes 15-18
inches long, capped on one end and welded with a solid sheet on the other
end. A spark plug for ignition was also welded on the bottom or placed
internally. Lime was generally used as a liner to prevent the charge coming in
contact with the steel sides, 155

Several experiments with these new crucibles, or barbs as they became
known, continued using up to 2,000 grams of the uranium tetrafluoride. After
several modifications, a few large ingots weighing over 1,500 grams (3-4
pounds) were produced, On September 21, 1942. several more reduction
experiments were tried, with close to 3,000 grams of uranium tetrafluoride and

Butler, “Production of Uranium Metal by the Reduction of Uranium Tetrafluoride by Metallic
Calcium,” Report for August 5, 1942, in Report CC-238, “Report of the Metallurgicat Project for
the Month Ending Augnst 15, 1942," in the Ames Laboratory Papers, 1-8. According to Harry
A, Svec (interview, April 1992), Richard Thompson, a former undergraduate, actually
conducted the first experiment under Keller's direction, .

15Keller, “Research Notebook,” entries for the rest of August, 91-703,

TS5keller, “Research Notebook; September 2, 1942, 106. See also "Comparison of
Refractories as Bomb Lining Materials in Production,” and F. H. Spedding, “Summary of Work
at Ames,” March 10-April 19, 1944, the Ames Laboratory Papers, 89 for a description of the
different materials used for liners,


53

awumbers of chemists because they thought research on submarine detection,
radar, and gas research were much more important to the war effort.114

Metallurgical work conducted at Ames began with three 1920-vintage
pieces of metallurgical equipment: a smal! induction furnace that needed a
few parts, a photo-micrograph that had been missing a misror for several years,
and the old Hayes-purchased Helger E-I quartz spectrograph. Luckily, Ames
had good analytical equipment available. Eventually, the Manhattan Engineer
District replaced the reliable, but old, equipment with government purchased
instrumentation from funding especially allocated for the project.115

Organizationally, Spedding thought he needed the scientists in Ames in
order to supplement the Chicago laboratory in case that larger group failed in
its primary tasks. Therefore, he instituted a parallel organization, assigning the
scientists at Ames the same problems as thase given to scientists in Chicago,
but from different perspectives. For example, Johns and his group worked on
plutonium chemistry, and Amos Newton and William Sullivan had small _
groups backing up the fission products tesearch at Chicago. Harley Wilhelm
and Wayne Keller each headed small groups dealing with metallurgical
problems. James Warf took charge of the group trying to find analytical
methods to detect trace elemenis in pile materials even though there was also
an analytical group in Chicago.146 According to Spedding, there was little

M4Spedding, interview 5 with Calefano, 14,

115Spedding, interview 5 with Calciano, 13; Wilhelm, interview with author, 1990, 7
8; Spedding, Witheim, Daane interview, 1967, 1-2.

126Spedding, interview 5 with Calclano, 15, This nizational concept was used
repeat Throughout the war. Success was so desperately needed that often there was this
parallel effort. For example, four methods of praducing a bomb {three separation techniques



62

cost of approximately $22 a pound.136 Its operations were mostly discontinued
in late 1943, when the Ames Process supplanted all other methods because that
process produced enough metal of the required purity at a much cheaper cost
than others.187

Th 1932, Peter P. Alexander, who was later president of Metal Hydrides,
‘wrote a Ph.D. thesis on his process to reduce uranium, Assisted by L. W. Davis
and Frederick Archibald, he published information about the process in Metals
ant Alloys in 1937, His method first reduced uranium oxide with calcium
hydride. The resulting product was leached with a difuted acid, dried, pressed
inte cubes and sintered in a vacuum. The National Bureau of Standards first
contracted with Metal Hydrides in 1941 for 7,000 pounds of the Alexander
metal to be delivered to its headquarters. However, the delivery was stopped
mid-stream when analytical analysis showed baron had contaminated the
uranium. The culprit was the calcium used by Metal Hydrides, so the Bureau
decided to establish a calcium distillation unit at Beverly, Massachusetts, where
‘Metal Hydrides was located, a fortuitous coincidence for Alexander's company
since it was essentially ready for large-scale production of uranium when three
men from the Metallurgical Laboratory came to visit in early 1942,238

On January 14, 1942, Lyman Briggs from the National Bureau of
Standards, Arthur Compton from the University of Chicago, and Ernest

Wésmyth, 93; Lilliendahl to Withelm. 3-4.

787Walsh, 1371; Wilhelm, “Development of Uranium Metal,” 67.
18peter P. Alexander, “Letter to Harley A. Wilhelm on Uranium Production,” January
28, 1959, the Wilhelm Papers; Peter P, Alexander, “The Hydride Pracess—IV,” Reprinted
from Metals aud Alloys (October 1938); [2}-15]; Szilard, “Memorandum for Professor A. H.
Somptons 1-2; C. J, Rodden, “Letter to Harley A. Wilhelm on Uranium Production,” January
, 1959,

‘Wilhelm Papers.



48

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE AMES PROJECT, 1942-45

Organizing Research and Technology Development

When Frank Spedding indicated to Arthur Compton that he had
personnel in Ames who could examine chemical and metallurgical problems
for Chicago, he must have been thinking of the only other faculty member in
physical chemistry—Harley A. Wilhelm, Spedding’s job as chemistry division
leader was dated February 21, and by February 24, 1942. he had signed up his
colleague as the associate director on the Ames Project.!00 Wilhehn was not an
internationally known scholar like Spedding, and his academic credentials,
though sound, were not as impressive as those of his more famous colleague.
Harley A. Wilhelm, whose parents were tenant farmets, was ¢co-valedictorian
of his small Iowa high school, but it was athletics that allowed him to
financially afford college at Diake University in Des-Moines, lows: A
basketball scholarship paid his tuition, but in order to earn enough money to
remain in school, in the summers he worked construction gangs and played
semi-pro basebail, another passion. He graduated from Drake in 1923 in
mathematics, having taken only two courses in chemistry. He applied for a

9, C Stems, “Letter to F. H. Spedding on Chicago Metallurgical Laborato:
Employment,” March 19, 1942, Ames Lake on Pay On March Se. i

received this letter from the University of Chicago acknowledging that he had been on their
paytoll since February 21, 1942.

WOath of Secrecy signed by Harley A Wilhelm, Spedding Papers; Speddit
interview with Svee, 1982, 1 ty Harley peding ne



32

I predicted.

“TH bet you a thousand dollars you won't," he challenged.

“Til take you on that,” I answered, “and these men are the
witnesses.”

“Til cut the stakes to a five-cent cigar,” countered Lawrence.
“Agreed.”

I won the bet, but I haven't yet received the cigar. Maybe the five-
cent veaiety is no longer made.64

After the meeting, Compton called Fermi who somewhat reluctantly
agreed to come to Chicago as soon as possible, and sent his assistant, Herbert
Anderson, ahead to prepare for Fermi's arrival, Eugene Wigner at Princeton
was also called and agreed to come. Leo Szilard, who had immediately left
Chicago after the meeting, was telegraphed in New York to join Fermi.

Compton had previously discussed the wartime research project with
President Robert M, Hutchins and Vice President E, T. Filbey. They had already
talked about the location of a nuclear reactor and what adjustments might
need to be made on campus to accommodate the research. On the morning of
January 25; Compton went to see Vice President Filbey to get clearance for the
moves of the scientists to Chicago and to discuss their locations on campus.
Shortly, thereafter, the mathematics department, which shared quarters with
the physicists in Eckhart Hall. was contacted and volmteered to move its
entire operation to the brary in order to make room for the expanded research
project and the anticipated new personnel

Compton, 81.
Rhoades. 400,
Compton, 80,82.



7

calcium in each experiment. From these experiments, several ingots were cast
and recast by C F Gray, producing a final billet of pure metallic uranium
weighing approximately 4,980 grams {eleven pounds).!56

On September 24, 1942, Harley Wilhelm took the 5-inch by 2-inch 11-
pound ingot from the casting furnace, placed it carefully in a traveling bag
some students had given him from his coaching stint in Helena, Montana, and
caught the night train that traveled to Chicago from the Ames Depot.157
Getting off the train in Chicago, Wilhelm had to catch the “L” to the
University of Chicago campus. In transit, the handle of his case broke, so by
the time he reached Spedding’s office in Eckhart Hall, he was carrying the
precious cargo in its case under his arm. Spedding and Wilhelm took the billet
to Compton who had never seen one piece of uranium this big before. His
immediate reaction was, “I bet there's a pipe {hole] inside.” Wilhelm took the
ingot to the basement of the biology building and instructed a shop man fo cut
it open. After a small fire in the cutting process. a cropping from the ingot
finally appeared; there was no pipe. Spedding evidently took a cropping to
an administrative meeting soon thereafter. R.L. Doan the laboratory director
later recalled that momentous day:

Wétkeller, “Research Notebook,” various September entries, inchiding 9/23/42, 107-1 a7.
Ak HL compton, "Metallurgical Project R t for Month Ending Ccrobier 15, 1942, * Report Ne
, Ss ratory crs. ter 3 t gives a summary of ti "metallurgscal
work for August and September 1942. “pon
S7tarley Wilhelm, “Interview with Laura Kline. Iowa State Archivist” November
14, 1988, Incomplete transcript in Parks Lil , Ames, lowa, 1, Harley Wilhelm, “Telephone
Conversation with author,” July 1989, Ames, lowa; Wilhelm, interview with author, 1990, 12,

WS Wilhelm, telephone conversation with author, 1989; Wilhelm, interview with
Kline, 1988, 2. Wilhelm, interview with author 1990, 12



72

search for an adequate site or building, On the east side of Ames, there was an
old gas generation plant made of brick. Though sturdy, that building would
take too much work to renovate, so it was discarded as a practical possibility for
the plant. After a lengthy search, Wilhelm and Spedding discovered an
appropriate building on campus, a small World War I temporary wooden
house behind the Dairy Industries building, near the power plant on the
southeastern edge of campus. It had been used years before as a women’s
gymnasium. In 1942, it was used primarily for storage; there was evidently a
popcorn laboratory in one part of the building, and in a kind of garage the
psychology department had stored some trucks with educational,
demonstration equipment. The College gave the building to the project. and
immediately the chemists had the dirt flor in the garage area replaced with
concrete so that casting could take place in this area. The chemists set up the
reduction laboratory in the original part of the building where the popcorn lab
had been located. The building shortly began to expand in 2 most curious
“patterri. The porch was used for the especially dirty work, the least secret of the
process. However, when it became too cold to work on the porch, a canvas
would be added followed by a crude set of walls and finally a new roof. Anew
porch appeared and the process repeated itself, The odd expansion of the
house took place as soon as more space became necessary to expand operations

120 ;iginally called the Home Economics Annex, the building was built west of the
Home Economics Building in 1920. In 2926, when the new Home Economies Building was
constructed, it was physically moved to a new site south of the Press Building where it served
as the girls’ gyranastum, called the Field House. In 1941, it was no Ionger needed because the
new Women’s Gymnasium was constructed. It was being used as a storage facility when
ing and Withelm discovered it, H. Summerfield Day, The Iowa State University Campus
and lis Buildings 1859-1979 (Ames, IA: Towa State University, 1980), 254.



35

thought he had discovered a new element. He was set to call it Michiganium,
but discovered that what he thought was a new element were actually
impurity traces in the materials with which he was working?! As he was
about to finish his Master’s degree, Spedding met one day with a professor he
had in his undergraduate days, Moses Gomberg, who suggested that he geon
to Berkeley and work under G. N, Lewis, head of physical chemistry at the best
school in that area in the country.”2 Gomberg wrote a recommendation and
despite the fact that Spedding applied late, he was offered a teaching
assistantship and placed in Lewis’ prestigious research group.’

The advantages to a young scientist coming to Berkeley were obvious.
Almost every nationally known and internationally known figure in
chemistry and physica foumd his/her way to lecture or present seminars at
Berkeley Equipment was readily available to conduct theoretical or
experimental studies. G. N. Lewis was also the consummate scientist, and

_ Spedding later estimated that clearly one-third of all physical chemistry
department heads in the country had studied under this master chemist.

was conducted in the late seventies and early eighties by the daughter of Frank H. Spedding.
‘The author was given permission to view the transcripts of interviews that were revised by
Spedding, those in possession of Edith Landin who served as Spedding’s assistant at the Ames
‘Laboratory.

"Spedding, interview 1 with Calciano, 7-8.

. Svec, “Prologue: F. H, Spedding (Oct. 22, 1902-Dec. 15, 1984)" in Handbook
he ‘Rare ‘ idner, Jr. and L, Eyting, Vol.

T2efarry J.
9 fie Bhs sid Chetry of Earths, edited by K. A. Gschneidner, Jr.
2 (Condon: Elsevier Science Publishers, 1989), 1-2. ‘Some of the material for this book was
several Anes Taba eeny pale a Je hat was reprnfed in various forms for
several Ames ‘tory publications for ing’s eighticti birthday and for 2 narrative
to nominate Spedding for the J. B. Priestly reat Cente

73§pedding, interview 1 with Calan, 1, 14.