The Manhattan and Elsie Projects 



97 



Mr. Meyers was the Head of Dahlgren's Special Projects 

 Division for test and evaluation of nuclear devices. 



knew they were working on something that was highly classified, but they didn't 

 have the overall perspective. 



Dahlgren had several of the small pieces. I think Dr. Kemper mentioned 

 determining aerodynamic properties of a shape which could be dropped from 

 an aircraft.* At that time, I was working in the Light Armor Division, and we 

 tested peculiar little pieces of elliptically shaped armor plate that we were told 

 were highly classified and which I'm now sure were partsof the armor that went 

 around an atomic device. We didn't know that then. We just knew we were 

 doing something that was very urgent and that we couldn't talk about it. There 

 may have been other pieces here and there at Dahlgren that I didn't know 

 about. 



I believe that later on, when they determined that atomic devices could be 

 built, the first atomic weapon device was built under the Manhattan Project. I'm 

 not too sure about that, but the device that evolved was carried out to 

 Alamogordo, New Mexico, and set up on top of a 100-foot tower and tested. 



*Dr. William A. Kemper, former physicist at the Dahlgren Laboratory, was interviewed, regarding 

 the Dahlgren history, by Jack Brooks, Jr., at Dahlgren in January 1975. 



