The Morgantown, W. Va., and Grand Forks, N. 

 Dak., ERC's are oriented more toward engineering 

 than the other laboratories. Grand Forks did not 

 conduct basic research on its specialty, lignite coal, 

 because that work had been done earlier, chiefly in 

 Germany. However, the Morgantown laboratory 

 found that basic research was necessary to support 

 both its coal conversion program and its enhanced 

 petroleum and gas production programs. 



The present Morgantown laboratory dates back 

 to 1954, but a smaller laboratory had been found- 

 ed in 1946. Some examples of basic research con- 

 ducted at Morgantown are studies of alkali metal 

 contamination of producer gas, studies of eastern 

 gas shales (similar to the oil shale research of the 

 Laramie ERC), and studies of magnetism to gain 

 a better understanding of the operation of magnet- 

 ic separation systems. 



AEC 



Much of the basic research of ERDA was based 

 on that of the AEC, and the current high-energy 

 and nuclear physics programs, for example, con- 

 tinue the line of scientific inquiry which led to the 

 current applications of nuclear energy. The first 

 Federal Government money for such research 

 was some $2,000-.^,000 obtained by Ross Gunn of 

 the Naval Research Laboratory immediately after 

 the revelation by Nils Bohr (alias Nicholas Baker) 

 on January 26, I9.'?9, that Otto Hahn and Friedrich 

 Strassman had demonstrated the fission of uran- 

 ium in their laboratory in Germany. Gunn's pro- 

 posal was to do the research which would enable 

 the Navy to build a nuclear submarine. In addi- 

 tion to experimental confirmation of fission, re- 

 ported by four laboratories in the February 15, 

 1939, issue of the Physical Review, research on 

 fission and related physics and chemistry became 

 very active in many laboratories. Of particular 

 importance was the research of two groups at 

 Columbia University, Walter Zinn and Leo Szi- 

 lard in one, and Enrico Fermi, H. B. Hanstein, 

 and Herbert Anderson in the other. These physi- 

 cists discovered that more than one neutron was 

 emitted per fissioned atom and, of key import- 

 ance, that some of these neutrons were delayed, 

 making control of a chain reaction possible. 

 Allardice and Trapnell state that the Germans did 

 not discover the delayed neutrons and this was the 

 cause of the failure of their wartime nuclear pro- 

 gram, ^y.-! 



Szilard sought support for his research from 

 NRL but received only "sympathetic understand- 



ing," while Fermi tried both the Army and the 

 Navy with no success. Szilard recruited Eugene 

 Wigner of Princeton and, together with Albert 

 Einstein, they composed a letter to President 

 Roosevelt. In response, the President appointed 

 an Advisory Committee on Uranium with Lyman 

 Briggs, Director of NBS, as its chairman. Some 

 funds for research were provided by the Army 

 and the Navy. OSRD saw to it that funds were 

 made available for the measurement of fundamen- 

 tal constants. A special committee was appointed 

 by NAS, and, in May 1941, the committee recom- 

 mended a strongly intensified elTort.-^ The histo- 

 ry of wartime atomic energy research was record- 

 ed in the "Smyth Report. "-97 



The Smyth Report is credited with being the key 

 to civilian participation in postwar nuclear energy 

 matters. 298 When the May-Johnson Bill proposed 

 to continue military control, there was revolt of 

 concerned scientists, especially from Chicago and 

 Oak Ridge. To communicate their ideas they 

 founded the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. 

 Senator Arthur Vandenburg responded to their 

 pressure by introducing a resolution to establish a 

 joint Senate-House committee to study the prob- 

 lem. The resolution passed, and Senator Brian 

 McMahon became chairman of the joint commit- 

 tee. The McMahon Act of August 1, 1946, estab- 

 lished the AEC as a civilian agency to control the 

 nuclear energy program. 



Basic research was a key element in the suc- 

 cessful wartime program under the Manhattan 

 District of the Army, and it remained important to 

 the AEC throughout the Commission's life. The 

 AEC supported major research programs in nucle- 

 ar physics, transuranic element discovery, isotope 

 discovery, radiochemistry, radiobiology, materials 

 research, and mathematics. Later, basic research 

 was conducted in plasma physics and high-energy 

 physics. "There (was) clearly no limit to AEC's 

 search for new knowledge, as long as it (bore) 

 some relationship to atomic energy. "-"w 



Obligations reported to NSF for 1952 show that 

 the AEC then had the hirgest basic research pro- 

 gram of any Federal agency, 28 percent of the 

 U.S. total. It reported $3.8 million in the life sci- 

 ences, $30.3 million in the physical sciences, and 

 zero in the social sciences. ^f^i By 1963, AEC's ba- 



^'Allardice. C. and E. R. Trupnell, 77?e Atomic Energy 

 Commission (Praeger, New York. 1974). p. 5. Hereinafter re- 

 ferred to as Allardice. 



^^Ibid; Baxter. J. P., Ill, Scientists Against Time (Little. 

 Brown; Boston, 1950). pp. 419-447. 



■^Smyth. H. D.. "A General Account of the Development 

 of Atomic Energy for Military F^irposes" (U. S. Army: Wash- 

 ington, D.C.. 1945). Reprinted by Princeton University Press, 

 1948. 



298AIIardice. pp. 8-9. 



2»Allardice. p. 84. 



ioo federal Funds. Vol. II. Tables B-5 and B-7. 



COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS AND HISTORICAL TRENDS 359 



