"On This Day" In Engineering History

On this day in engineering history, Albert Einstein wrote the first of four letters to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, urging the U.S. president to pay "particular attention to the problem of securing a supply of uranium ore for the United States." Einstein, a German-born theoretical physicist who had won the Nobel Prize in 1921, also suggested that an end to uranium shipments from Czechoslovakia was related to weapons research at the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institute in Berlin. Less than a month after Einstein's letter arrived at the White House, Nazi Germany invaded Poland, confirming Winston Churchill's assertion that Adolph Hitler would not stop at annexing Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.

A New and Important Source of Energy

Albert Einstein's first letter to President Roosevelt began on a hopeful note, explaining that recent work by Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard "leads me to expect that the element uranium may be turned into a new and important source of energy." Frédéric Joliot-Curie's own research regarding nuclear chain reactions also promised the possibility of "vast amounts of power".

Nevertheless, this same "phenomenon" could also lead to the building of "extremely powerful bombs of a new type". Although Einstein did not name these weapons of war, he asserted that "a single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port." Ironically, the physicist believed that the weapon that would be know as the atomic bomb "might well prove too heavy for transportation by air".

Secure Sources, More Funding, and Public-Private Cooperation

Towards the end of his letter, Albert Einstein warned President Roosevelt that "the United States has only very poor ores of uranium in moderate quantities." Although the mines of Canada and the Belgian Congo had not fallen into Nazi hands, the U.S. needed to secure a supply of high-quality ores. The physicist also politely told the president that "you may think it desirable to have more permanent contact maintained between the Administration and the group of physicists working on chain reactions in America." In addition, Einstein suggested more funding for university laboratories engaged in nuclear research – from private individuals, if necessary - and "obtaining the co-operation of industrial laboratories which have the necessary equipment".

Einstein's Greatest Mistake?

Born of the fear that Nazi Germany was developing an A-bomb, the Manhattan Project eventually employed 130,000 people and cost nearly $2 billion. Less than six years after Einstein first contacted President Roosevelt, the Trinity Test ushered in the Atomic Age. Years later, the physicist characterized his letter of August 2, 1939 as his "greatest mistake".

Resources:

http://hypertextbook.com/eworld/einstein.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Joliot

http://www.myhero.com/myhero/hero.asp?hero=winstonchurchill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project