Talk:Manhattan Project

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Frequently asked questions

Organization

Q1: Why are Canada and Britain listed in the infobox? Wasn't the Manhattan Project an all-American effort?

A1: No, the Manhattan Project was a multinational effort, controlled by the United States, Britain and Canada.

Q2: Weren't other countries involved? Why aren't they listed too?

A2: Other countries were involved. There were many individuals from many countries. Especially notable contributions were made by Niels Bohr (Denmark) and Marcus Oliphant (Australia). The flags in the infobox refer to the governance of the project, which was by the United States, Britain and Canada.

Q3: Is it worth noting that Canada had such a role?

A3: Yes. This had important consequences in the post-war period.

Q4: Wasn't Robert Oppenheimer the head of the Manhattan Project?

A4: No, Major General Leslie R. Groves, Jr., was the director of the Manhattan Project. Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory.

Q5: Wasn't Oppenheimer Groves' chief scientific advisor?

A5: No, Richard Tolman was Groves' chief scientific advisor. Oppenheimer was the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory.

Q6: Why is Kenneth Nichols listed as the commander of the Manhattan District? Wasn't Groves in command of the Manhattan District?

A6: No, Groves was director of the Manhattan Project; The Manhattan District was commanded by Colonel James C. Marshall until 1943, and then by Nichols.

Q7: Weren't the Manhattan Project and the Manhattan District the same thing?

A7: No, they were two separate entities. Check out the organization chart in the article.

Q8: Wasn't the sleeve patch worn only by WACs?

A8: No. have a look at the picture of the presentation of the Army–Navy "E" Award at Los Alamos on 16 October 1945. Nichols and Groves are wearing it.

Q9: Why is the district listed as participating in campaigns in the European theater?

A9: This refers to the activities of the Alsos Mission, which was part of the project.

Q10: And the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

A10: This refers to the activities of Project Alberta. Manhattan Project personnel, including Captain William S. Parsons were on board the aircraft which carried out the missions.

Other issues

Q11: I added something to the article but it got removed. Why?

A11: In all probability what you added was trivia, unsourced information or information cited to an unreliable source; such information is usually removed quickly because of the article's Featured Status. Articles on Wikipedia require reliable sources for an independent verification of the facts presented, consequently any information added to an article without a reliable source is subject to removal from the article at any Wikipedian's discretion.

Q12: I tried to edit this article but couldn't. Why?

A12:This article has been indefinitely semi-protected due to persistent vandalism or violations of content policy. Semi-protection prevents edits from anonymous users (IP addresses), as well as edits from any account that is not autoconfirmed (is at least four days old and has ten or more edits to Wikipedia) or confirmed. Such users can request edits to this article by proposing them on this talk page, using the {{editsemiprotected}} template if necessary to gain attention. They may also request the confirmed userright by visiting Requests for permissions.

Manhattan Project is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

Manhattan Project is the main article in the History of the Manhattan Project series, a featured topic. This is identified as among the best series of articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on July 16, 2013.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
December 11, 2010	Good article nominee	Listed
January 27, 2011	WikiProject A-class review	Not approved
March 18, 2011	WikiProject A-class review	Approved
August 23, 2011	Featured article candidate	Promoted
July 16, 2013	Today's featured article	Main Page
December 21, 2016	Good topic candidate	Not promoted
May 29, 2018	Featured topic candidate	Promoted
Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on December 2, 2004, December 2, 2005, December 2, 2006, December 2, 2007, August 13, 2011, August 13, 2012, August 13, 2015, and August 13, 2017.
Current status: Featured article

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African-American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project

I just read a great new page, "African-American scientists and technicians on the Manhattan Project," that should be linked to on this main page. Can someone add that link somewhere here? The page is protected, or I would do it myself. Thanks! ProfJsto (talk) 15:05, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done Added a sentence. It is also now in the template, so is present in all the Manhattan Project articles. One problem: the article says As a condition of funding the project, southern legislators required that it be segregated but neither of the cited sources support this sentence. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:02, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

thanks a lot! i didn't make this page, but I can check in on the sources and see what I find. ProfJsto (talk) 21:04, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. I will delete the sentence for now. It can be reinstated if a source can be found. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 22:42, 12 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 2 May 2024

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Within the article for the Manhattan project, the part about Uranium, more specifically about Gaseous Diffusion seems to have a grammatical mistake, I have put in bold what I think should be added for the sentence to make more sense grammatically speaking.

The process faced formidable technical difficulties. The highly corrosive gas uranium hexafluoride had to be used, as no substitute could be found, and the motors and pumps had to be vacuum tight and enclosed in inert gas. Think and Game (talk) 13:47, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done Funnyfarmofdoom (talk to me) 14:38, 2 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Clarification

Reading through the article I was confused by: “Briggs proposed spending $167,000 on research into uranium, particularly the uranium-235 isotope, and plutonium, which was discovered in 1940 at the University of California.”

and then later:

“The properties of pure uranium-235 were relatively unknown, as were those of plutonium, which had only been discovered in February 1941 by Glenn Seaborg and his team.”

In researching the source it appears clear that two seperate discoveries were made, the first being the actual substance, and the second being the subtance's properties. The first quote should be reconciled to the second and clarified by striking ~~those~~ and adding “the properties.” TheRealStang (talk) 20:27, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

An error. They had evidence that Neptunium decayed to Plutonium, but Plutonium was not isolated until February 1941. I have corrected the text. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:52, 1 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 9 July 2024

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Add Matthew Pascale Von Kolpakow from Эугвуэга Тришу фон Колпаков as page 58, line 9 says, "Мэтью Паскаль фон Колпаков работал над Манхэттенским проектом." Which translates to Russian to mean "This man. He. This man: Matthew Pascale Von Kolpakow: this. Worked on the Manhattan Project."

Could you please add this man to the Manhattan Project page? He worked between 1943 and 1944 before returning to Poland and prompting emigration of his son to Australia. And their child!

f(x) ~1,619,000,000,070,000,03 E(-e)=122445e7. KingdomofAustraliasKingSamuelI (talk) 15:45, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Aside from the fact that most Manhattan Project personnel are not notable-enough to be listed on this page (thousands of scientists and technicians worked on the Manhattan Project, and hundreds of thousands of other workers), I do not find any citations for this name at all, much less anything that confirms they work on the Manhattan Project. The source listed is unknown to me and gets zero Google hits, so even its most basic nature, or a basic citation, is impossible to discern. The name "Matthew Pascale Von Kolpakow" gets zero Google hits. The name is totally unknown to me and no searching for "Kolpakow" or "Kolpakov" or "Колпаков" among my many books and files turns up any hits of relevance. I don't know what's going on here, but this does not seem legit. If you have some clarification of the above, it might be considered, but even if the figure in question was assumed to exist and to have worked on the project (itself not established), they necessarily seem quite obscure and not warranting mention. --NuclearSecrets (talk) 17:24, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. PianoDan (talk) 17:26, 9 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 29 July 2024

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add internal link to the name of Vannevar Bush in the final paragraph of == Origins == Nikamavrody (talk) 06:19, 29 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: He's already linked on his first appearance. PianoDan (talk) 21:50, 30 July 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Manhattan Engineer District

Turns out that the actual name was "Manhattan Engineer District." Many sources have it as having been called the "Manhattan Engineering District", but the more reliable sources all use "Engineer", not "Engineering" (e.g., Rhodes pp. 426-427: "Nichols' previous boss, Colonel Marshall, had worked out of an office in Manhattan (where in August he had disguised the project to build an atomic bomb behind the name Manhattan Engineer District)... On Saturday Groves drafted a letter in the name of Donald Nelson, the civilian head of the War Production Board, assigning a first-priority AAA rating to the Manhattan Engineer District";
or Gosling p. 13, "Part III: The Manhattan Engineer District."

Geoffrey.landis (talk) 20:57, 23 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"While the legal designation of the new district was Manhattan District, it was often referred to as the Manhattan Engineer District" Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, p. 44 Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:22, 23 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]