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On August second of the year 1939, Albert Einstein sent a letter, written by Leo Szilard, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt telling Roosevelt of the opportunity that nuclear power could be harnessed into a weapon, and also warning of the threat of Germany discovering how to make it first. Both this opportunity and this fear led to the development of the Manhattan project; a group of scientists dedicated to finding use for atomic power as a weapon. In the 1930’s there were many interesting and intriguing discoveries on atomic power and fission. These discoveries excited some scientists, but most believed that nuclear power would never be able to be harnessed into use as a weapon. Later in that decade, Leo Szilard discovered that a chain reaction, called fusion, might be possible. He went to the United States and asked for funding, but was laughed at and flatly rejected, several times. After petitioning through Albert Einstein, Szilard was finally granted the $100 to buy graphite, which was to be used to absorb the explosion from the chain reaction while testing. About a year later, under the leadership of Enrico Fermi at the metallurgical laboratory of the University of Chicago, scientists were successful in creating a chain reaction while not blowing up the campus. Soon after that, Roosevelt finally agreed to expand funding to the secret project later known as the Manhattan Project. The Jewish Physicists Szilard and Einstein originally started the idea of the Manhattan project, but there where many other Scientists that had a lot to do with the project. The responsibility of the project was assigned to the U.S. Army. On August 13, 1942, the Manhattan Engineer District was established. About a month later, General Leslie R. Groves of the Corps of Engineers was put in complete charge of all the Army’s responsibility relating to atomic-bomb development. At that time there were three government-supported laboratories in the country, Columbia University, University of Chicago and University of California; one site was used for the transformation from uranium into plutonium, and two for separating Uranium-235 through electromagnetism and gas diffusion. J. Robert Oppenheimer was appointed supervisor of the trinity site, the site of the plutonium testing. He also had much to do with the recruiting of many scientists. Neils Bohr was another man that worked on the project and helped develop the bomb. Bohr was important for the project, and also famous, because he developed the theory of fission and knew the subject better than anyone else.
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