War Department Press Release
date: label: Date made
content: November 26, 1946, for release December 1, 1946
name: label: maker
content: U.S. War Department
label: maker
content: U.S. Everlasting
label: maker
content: U.S. War Department. Public Relations. Press Section
notes: label: Description
content: Press release dated November 26, 1946, for release December 1, 1946, describing the first self sustaining nuclear chain reaction. George Weil (1907-1995), the donor, was a physicist with a Ph.D. from Columbia University who worked with Enrico Fermi at the University of Chicago during World War II. On December 2, 1942, he was the last scientist on the floor for the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction in history, Chicago Pile-1, and started the reaction himself by pulling the final 14 foot cadmium “control rod” from the reactor.
label: Description
content: Ref: William L. Laurence, “Dec. 2, 1942-The Birth of the Atomic Age,” New York Times (Dec. 1, 1946), pp. SM 6 and 60.
place: label: place made
content: United States: District of Columbia, Washington
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Modern Physics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.N-08212
label: accession number
content: 240287
label: catalog number
content: N-8212
objectType: label: Object Name
content: War Department Press Release
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 in x 8 1/2 in; 27.94 cm x 21.59 cm