The Atomic Bomb: The Effects of Obtaining Extraordinary Power William Kahn The Manhattan Project Started in 1942 by the United States with support from the United Kingdom and Canada Led by J.R. Oppenheimer to create the world’s first atomic bomb Employed over 130,000 people (scientists, engineers and laborers) End of WWII The atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred on August 6th, 1945 and August 9th, 1945. Japan surrendered soon after To this date, the only time in history that the atomic bomb was used in warfare The Smyth Report Just three days after the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on August 12, 1945, H.D. Smyth released his book, Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, or better known as The Smyth Report. Summarized the previously declassified discoveries of the Manhattan Project and the associated nuclear physics Modern Safeguards The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was formed in 1970 to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. Part of the treaty includes the International Atomic Energy Agency Safeguards, which represent specific means of controlling non-proliferation. Sources H.D. Smyth. Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. Princeton University: Review Of Modern Physics, Volume 27, Number 4, 1945. Barnaby, Frank. How Nuclear Weapons Spread: Nuclear-Weapon proliferation in the 1990s. London, 1993. Kelly, Cynthia C. Remembering the Manhattan Project: Perspectives on Making the Atomic Bomb and Its Legacy. New Jersey, 2005. The China Syndrome: Three Mile Island and Nuclear Energy in the United States Ari Tepper History 285 Section 003 Growth Of Nuclear Power President Eisenhower Atoms for Peace delivered to UN General Assembly, 1953 Shippingport Atomic Power Station First full scale commercial plant Design borrowed heavily from US Navy More than 800 weapons test in US between 1946 and 1979 Admiral Rickover. Huge pace of development for “Nuclear Navy” First new source of energy since fire 2 Three Mile Island (TMI) Pressurized Water Reactor 30 years of collective operating experience Only operating at full power for 40 days Rushed into service Human error compounded by bad designs Releases less than background levels Complex systems are prone to accidents, not limited to nuclear power generation No Evacuation Order Pregnant women and children under 5 within 50 miles 100,000 people left their homes anyways Cleanup cost over 1 billion USD Unit 2, 906 MW, larger than Unit 1 3 Industry Trends Slowdown of growth of demand by 1975 40% nuclear plants canceled before TMI Competitive Market Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA), 1978 Rising Costs and longer construction times TMI only exacerbated trends France, Germany, and UK Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant Shoreham cost 6 billion, never operated 4 Fears of the Future Cold War nuclear submarines carrying nuclear missiles Energy Concerns and Crises 1973 & 1979 Plant construction eventually recovered Societal acce ...

1. The Atomic Bomb: The Effects of Obtaining Extraordinary
Power
William Kahn
The Manhattan Project
Started in 1942 by the United States with support from the
United Kingdom and Canada
Led by J.R. Oppenheimer to create the world’s first atomic
bomb
Employed over 130,000 people (scientists, engineers and
laborers)
End of WWII
The atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki occurred on
August 6th, 1945 and August 9th, 1945.
Japan surrendered soon after
To this date, the only time in history that the atomic bomb was
used in warfare
The Smyth Report
Just three days after the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, on August 12, 1945, H.D. Smyth released his book,
Atomic Energy for Military Purposes, or better known as The
Smyth Report.

2. Summarized the previously declassified discoveries of the
Manhattan Project and the associated nuclear physics
Modern Safeguards
The Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was formed in 1970 to
prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Part of the treaty includes the International Atomic Energy
Agency Safeguards, which represent specific means of
controlling non-proliferation.
Sources
H.D. Smyth. Atomic Energy for Military Purposes. Princeton
University: Review Of Modern Physics, Volume 27, Number 4,
1945.
Barnaby, Frank. How Nuclear Weapons Spread: Nuclear-
Weapon proliferation in the 1990s. London, 1993.
Kelly, Cynthia C. Remembering the Manhattan Project:
Perspectives on Making the Atomic Bomb and Its Legacy. New
Jersey, 2005.
The China Syndrome:
Three Mile Island and Nuclear Energy in the United States
Ari Tepper
History 285
Section 003

3. Growth Of Nuclear Power
President Eisenhower
Atoms for Peace delivered to UN General Assembly,
1953
Shippingport Atomic Power Station
First full scale commercial plant
Design borrowed heavily from US Navy
More than 800 weapons test in US between
1946 and 1979
Admiral Rickover. Huge pace of development for “Nuclear
Navy”
First new source of energy since fire
2
Three Mile Island (TMI)
Pressurized Water Reactor
30 years of collective operating experience
Only operating at full power for 40 days
Rushed into service
Human error compounded by bad designs
Releases less than background levels
Complex systems are prone to accidents, not limited to nuclear
power generation
No Evacuation Order
Pregnant women and children under 5 within 50 miles

4. 100,000 people left their homes anyways
Cleanup cost over 1 billion USD
Unit 2, 906 MW, larger than Unit 1
3
Industry Trends
Slowdown of growth of demand by 1975
40% nuclear plants canceled before TMI
Competitive Market
Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act (PURPA), 1978
Rising Costs and longer construction times
TMI only exacerbated trends
France, Germany, and UK
Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant
Shoreham cost 6 billion, never operated
4
Fears of the Future
Cold War
nuclear submarines carrying nuclear missiles
Energy Concerns and Crises
1973 & 1979

5. Plant construction eventually recovered
Societal acceptance but lacking personal acceptability
Polls show increases in wanting plants, but decreases in wanting
them near the poll takers
Completed plants in PA would have made up 40% of grid
USS Sam Rayburn c. 1964
HIST 285 - Technology in Historical Perspective
Department of History & Politics
“Globalization”
I. Introduction
A. Advocates and Critics
B. Facsimiles
C. McDonalds

6. II. Convergence vs. Divergence
The Limits of Convergence: Globalization and Organizational
Change in Argentina,
South Korea, and Spain Mauro F. Guillén
III. Facsimiles
International standards and Geographical relocation
A. Precursors
1. 1930s - William Finch
- 1935 Patent for
Finch Telecommunications Laboratories
Linked
B. A niche product

7. 1. AP Wire
2. Military
C. CCITT
1. “Handshaking”
2. 1980s – Digital processing

8. D. The move to Japan
1. Matsushita
E. “Fax! Programme”
Program guide.
IV. McDonald’s
A. Critics
1. Jose Bove
2. McLibel suit
commondreams.org article

9. Mc Spotlight
B. Advocates
1. Tom Friedman
- Wiki-List of countries with McDonalds
franchises
C. The Russian case
1. 1990 - The world’s largest McDonald’s
Audio slideshow
2. Cold War, Glasnost and Perestroika
Moscow McDonalds

10. 3. The McComplex in Moscow
4. “Voting with their feet”
Linked
5. The reverse effect
V. Conclusions
A World Without Borders: What is Happening with
Globalization (2002)
Darwin’s Nightmare (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mBZBpL1KiA&feature=rela
ted

11. HIST 285 - Technology in Historical Perspective
Department of History & Politics
“The Means of Destruction”
I. Introduction
A. From profit-making capitalism to Pentagon capitalism
- From profit maximizing to contract maximizing
- means of destruction (wanton or controlled?)
B. The military-industrial complex
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell speech.
- The problems of a single patron system.
Hiroshima after bombing.
Budgetary Black Holes:
Mohole – “earth sciences' answer to the space

12. program.”
Lexington nuclear plane
SDI “Star Wars”
Project Mohole (1958-1966)
Lexington Project (1949-1963)
President Ronald Reagan in 1983
Reagan announced, "I call upon the scientific community who
gave us nuclear weapons to turn their great talents to the cause
of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering
these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete."
II. WWI, A War of Mass Production
A. Mass production
B. Trench warfare
www.soniccomb.com video
German 7.7 cm FK 16 cannon
German Barrage 1915

13. C. Germany’s Four Year Plan (1936-1940)
D. Blitzkrieg
III. Atomic energy
A. WWII “The Physicists’ War
“Physicists’ fable”
B. Manhattan Project
1. Universities: Columbia, Berkeley, Chicago
2. Enrico Fermi, 1942
3. Robert Oppenheimer at Los Alamos, NM
4. Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard’s 1939 Letter

14. 5. Office of Scientific Research and Development
(OSRD)
A. General Leslie Groves
D. Big Science to Industrial Factory
1. Oak Ridge, TN
A. Uranium-235
B. Electromagnetic separation
1. Ernest Lawrence at Berkeley
a. Cyclotron and Calutron
C. Gaseous diffusion
1. Bell Telephone and Columbia University
D. Thermal diffusion

15. 1. Naval research Laboratory
E. Niels Bohr “”. . . turning the whole country into a
factory.”
Niels Bohr 1885-1962
IV. Dropping the Bomb
A. “Little Boy”
- Hiroshima remembered
B. “Fat Man”
C. The Cold War
1. “The logic of war”

16. V. Nuclear Submarines and the Arms race
A. Admiral Hyman Rickover
B. Westinghouse, General Electric, Electric Boat
Rickover 1900-1986
C. Atomic Energy Commission
Eisenhower’s speech at the UN 1953
Shippingport Power Station
Its reactor in 1956

17. HIST 285 - Technology in Historical Perspective
Department of History and Politics
“Materials of Modernism”
I. Introduction
1. “Technological fundamentalism”
David Orr’s Article on JSTOR
Amory Lovins, “nuclear fusion is like using a chain saw to cut
butter.”
2. Modernism
II. Steel
1. Henry Bessemer
A. Volume versus Quality: Railroads in the USA

18. III. Glass
A. Gatherers, Blowers,
Cutters, and Flatteners
B. Blowing machine
C. Colburn machine
“Syrup off the roller”
D. Plate Glass
IV. Modernism in architecture
A. Futurists
“Futurists Gone Wild”
B. De Stijl
1. Piet Mondrian

19. 2. J.J.P. Oud
The Rietveld Schröder House. The only building realised
according to the principles of De Stijl
Piet Mondrian, Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930
Weissenhof Row Houses · Stuttgart, Germany
C. Bauhaus
1. Elementarism
Walter Gropius’ School in Dessau, Germany
Videos (3 x 9 mins)

20. Ivan Chernikov, 1933, Fantasy #67: Linear Resolution of 3-
Dimensional Architectural Rendering in Axiometric Perspective
D. New York World’s Fair
1. “World of Tomorrow” 1939 (Video)
V. Conclusions
HIST 285, Technology in Historical Perspective
Department of History & Politics
“Science and Systems”
I. Introduction
1. Second “industrial revolution”
II. The Dye Industry

21. 1. England
A. Aniline dyes of August von Hoffman
August Wilhelm von Hofmann
(1818-1892)
Molecular Model of Methane
B. William Henry Perkin (1838-1907)
- mauveine
2. Germany
A. A new organizational
structure
B. Scientific “mass-labor
1. Universities and Laboratories
C. Patent disputes

22. Hoechst dyeworks, commencement of alizarin factory, 1869-
1870. Edelstein Collection, Hebrew University. Website
Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz was a professor of
chemistry at the University of Bonn from 1867 to 1896.
D. The Chemists’ war.
1. Poisonous gases
2. Nitrogen
A poison gas attack using gas cylinders in World War I.
John Singer Sargent's 1918 painting Gassed.
Fritz Haber (1868-1934)
The Haber-Bosch process was a milestone in industrial
chemistry, because it divorced the production of nitrogen
products, such as fertilizer, explosives and chemical feedstocks,
from natural deposits, especially sodium nitrate (caliche), of
which Chile was a major (and almost unique) producer.
III. Electricity

23. 1. Thomas Edison
A. “Wizard of Menlo Park”
Edison’s Miracle of Light (CLIP)
B. Electric light
C. Direct current vs Alternating current
2. Westinghouse
A. Alternating current
B. Universal system
3. Competition
A. Harold Brown’s public displays

24. Smithsonian Article
IV. Stabilizing Large-Scale Systems
1. Financiers
2. Corporations
A. Edison, Westinghouse, and
Thompson-Houston
B. Mergers. Edison: “No competition means
no incentive.”
3. Engineers

25. IEEE Edison Medal
4. Research labs
The early GE Research Lab team: Steinmetz on the left, the
Hayden Family, It might be Irving Langmuir with the bowtie in
the center. This photo and those on the left were taken in
Steimetz's garage. Website
List of Societies
5. The content of engineering.
A. MIT - 1900-1930s.
1. 1902 - Separate electrical engineering department
2. Dugald Jackson

26. American electrical engineer. He received the IEEE Edison
Medal for "outstanding and inspiring leadership in engineering
education and in the field of generation and distribution of
electric power”.
Jackson headed the Department of Electrical Engineering of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology for an unprecedented
time, 1907 to 1935.
3. The Technology Plan of 1920. Website
William Walker’s essay
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1644563?seq=3
Dugald Caleb Jackson
(1865-1951)
B. Harold Hazen’s “Network Analyzer” 1920s-1930s
Harold Locke Hazen (August 1, 1901 - February 21, 1980) was
an American electrical engineer. He contributed to the theory of
servomechanisms and feedback control systems. In 1924 under
the lead of Vannevar Bush, Hazen and his fellow undergraduate
Hugh H. Spencer built a prototype AC network analyzer, a
special-purpose analog computer for solving problems in
interconnected AC power systems. Hazen also worked with
Bush over twenty years on such projects as the mechanical
differential analyzer.

27. Cambridge differential analyzer, 1938
V. Conclusions
HIST 285 - Technology in Historical Perspective
Department of History and Politics
“Instruments of Empire”
I. Introduction
1. Technology and Imperialism
Overseas empires
Reciprocal relationship
Profit in empire?
2. Steamships, telegraphs, railroads

28. Phases of empire:
a. Penetration
-warships, medicine
b. Consolidation
- public works
Breech-loading rifle
3. “Free trade”
End of the East India Company monopoly.
4. History of medicine
Chinchona tree – tropical diseases
II. Steamships and trade

29. 1. Introduction of steam power.
2. Anglo-Burmese war (1824-1826)
A. Irrawaddy river
-Diana “fire devil”
http://michelhoude.com/
B. mapping as a technology of imperialism
-James Rennell’s Map of Hindoostan (1782) and
Bengal Atlas (1779)
James Rennell (1742-1830)
Hindoostan

30. Bengal Atlas
C. The Ganges river between Calcutta and Allahabad (1834- )
-Hugh Lindsay (2 80 hp engines, Suez Canal (1869),
Mediterranean, Bombay)
Hooghly River, 1915
Hugh Lindsay
Suez Canal
- Opium
Opium Den in Calcutta

31. —The following table, compiled from official documents,
exhibits the growth of the three most important sources of the
public revenue of India, namely, land, opium and salt, in the ten
financial years, ending March 31, 1871-80:
http://www.econlib.org/library/YPDBooks/Lalor/llCy393.html
III. Telegraphs
1. Different contexts:
A. Western Europe and North America
B. India
2 Marquis of Dalhousie

32. A. cotton in Nagpur for example
B. Network
C. The so-called ‘Indian Mutiny’ (1857)
circa 1850: British politician and administrator James Andrew
Broun-Ramsey (1812 - 1860). Ramsay, the 10th Earl of
Dalhousie, was elected governor-general of India in 1847 and
held the post until 1856. He was created Marquis of Dalhousie
in 1849 but the title died with him. (Photo by Hulton
Archive/Getty Images)
3. Public Works Department
A. Dharwad cotton
B. Royal Indian Engineering School at Cooper’s Hill
Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt's Royal Indian Engineering College at
Cooper's Hill, overlooking the Thames at Runnymede,

33. IV. Railroads
1. Powerful influence on commerce, politics and society
2. Large banking investments
A. India
B. South Africa
V. Conclusions
HIST 285 - Technology in Historical Perspective
Department of History & Politics

34. “Geographies of Industry”
I. Introduction
A. The Industrial Revolution
B. New industries
C. Industry, class, culture.
D. London, Manchester, Sheffield
http://links.org.au/node/1206
Steel, Steam, Politics
Textiles
II. London:
A. The largest and fastest growing site of industry
B. The canal and dock complex
C. Coal

35. D. Beer Brewing
1. Porter
2. Watt steam engine
3. By-products and ancillary industries
4. Control of the Market
a. “Pubs” and the Beer Act of 1830
beer
E. Women and children

36. Industrialization video
III. Manchester (Cottonopolis)
A. Cotton textile Industry
B. Unified cotton factory system
C. Gender issues
D. Ancillary industries
1. Machine builder and iron
James Heargreaves ‘Spinning Jenny’
Arkwright’s Water Frame
Crompton’s Spinning Mule
IV. Sheffield
A. Steel

37. B. Geography
C. Not a factory system
D. Steam power
E. Ancillary products
The Steel Manufacturers of Sheffield : The Hull or Workshop of
the Razor-Grinder
Razor grinders at work in a steel mill in Sheffield, England,
1866. Flues situated in front of the grinding stones serve to
carry away any harmful dust and metal particles produced
during the grinding process.
IV. Critics
A. Charles Dickens
B. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
C. Luddites

38. Final Examination
Follow these instructions carefully – I will be grading, in part,
how well you follow the directions for formatting and
submitting your exam!
Instructions: ** Do NOT delete any of the instructions or
questions. **
This is an open-book exam. Feel free to use the assigned
readings, lecture outlines, and notes. Do not use outside
sources (like online encyclopedias) – they will lead you astray
and weaken your answers. I will be looking for answers that
come from the assigned readings and lectures.
Work on the exam alone.
In your essay make sure to relate specific details from the
lectures and readings to the broader themes of the history of
technology. If you quote directly from the course materials,
you need to cite the source, for example (Misa, pg. 255). You
do not need to cite the lecture material.
Type your answers in the space DIRECTLY BELOW the
question you are answering. Use the same font type, size, and
color.
Part I. Short answer. Select THREE of the following and 1)

39. describe the topic (5 Points) and 2) state clearly how/why the
item is important to the history of technology (5 Points). (at
least 100 words -- 10 Points total for each)
1. Elementarism
2. The “ironies of modernism”
3. Pentagon capitalism
4. Scientific mass-labor
5. U-235
6. Iroquois Theater Fire
Part II. Essay Questions.
Group A
A. Select ONE question from Group A and write an essay
answering it as completely as possible. Use specific examples
from the course. (at least 250 words -- 20 points.)
6. Thomas Edison serves as an example of a major transition in
the history of technology. Describe this transition and his role
in it.
7. Why is the “Physicist’s Fable” an incomplete story?
8. Discuss TWO of the components of the stabilization of
large-scale technological systems in the United States between
1880-1930?
Group B
B. Select ONE question from Group B and write an essay
answering it as completely as possible. Use specific examples
from the course. (at least 250 words -- 20 points.)
9. Why is World War I referred to as the ‘Chemists’ War,’ and
World War II referred to as the ‘Physicists’ War?’
10. How did the development of technology in the United
States during the era of the “military-industrial complex” differ

40. from that during the “industrial revolution”?
11. What is the ‘logic of war’ and how does it relate to the
history of technology in the 20th century?
Part III. Technological Fundamentalism (at least 250 words – 20
Points)
12. A principal American contribution to the modern style, Misa
argues, included the “General Motors pavilion, which linked
science, rationalization, and progress through technology.”
(Misa, p. 184) The “World of Tomorrow” (1939) film that we
watched in class portrays a future utopian society made possible
by developments in technology. On the other hand, “The Day
After Trinity” offers a different perspective of a society
immersed in technology. In your opinion, do you believe that
social progress is necessarily linked to technological
development? Can you think of any examples where a specific
technological development has actually exerted a negative
impact upon society?
Part IV. Student Group Presentations – “Information Literacy”.
(at least 150 words -- 10 Points)
13. Select two of the Student Presentations (In-Class or Online).
Compare how these students investigated and communicated
their history projects (consider the questions they asked/posed,
the sources they used, and their final assessments or answers of
their topic). In your essay, make sure to provide direct
references to the presentations.