CHAPTER VIII 



OTHER OSRD RESEARCH GROUPS 



W„ 



HILE most of the scientific research and development 

 carried on under OSRD auspices was supervised either by NDRC or 

 CMR, there were four activities which, at one time or another, were car- 

 ried on without the interposition of either of those Committees. Two of the 

 four were under NDRC auspices at one time and a third was under CMR 

 for a short time. One of them functioned immediately under the Director, 

 the other three were supervised by committees created especially for the 

 purpose. They were quite disparate in scope and function. Their history is 

 another illustration of one of the principal contributing factors to the suc- 

 cess of OSRD — its flexibility. Bush might have set a pattern and forced 

 all activities into it. Instead he wisely adapted the organization to the task 

 confronting it. The organization chart was the servant, not the master, of 

 the organization. 



The most important of these special activities was that dealing with 

 atomic energy. Of less importance relatively, although highly significant in 

 its own right, was that dealing with proximity fuzes for shells. The other 

 two — sensory devices and insect control — were the result of special situa- 

 tions which kept them from fitting into the conventional NDRC and CMR 

 patterns. Each will be described briefly. 



Atomic Energy 



President Roosevelt's letter of June 15, 1940, appointing Bush to the 

 National Defense Research Committee informed him of the recent appoint- 

 ment of a special committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Lyman }. 

 Briggs of the Bureau of Standards "to study into the possible relationship 

 to national defense of recent discoveries in the field of atomistics, notably 

 the fission of uranium." The President stated that he would request the 

 committee to report to Bush as the jurisdiction of the NDRC included 

 atomic energy. On July i, 1940, Briggs wrote Bush giving him a brief 

 history of the activities of his committee and requesting funds for the con- 

 tinuance of one line of research. This program was considered by NDRC 

 at its meeting the next day. The Committee on Uranium was constituted 

 a special committee of the NDRC under the chairmanship of Briggs and 

 with a slight change in membership. NDRC approved in principle the pro- 



