In 1942, on a squash court beneath the stands at Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, famed Italian physicist Enrico Fermi oversaw the construction of an experimental atomic pile, comprising graphite blocks into which several tons of uranium fuel were injected.
On December 2nd, after witnessing the first controlled nuclear chain reaction in human history (which lasted about 28 minutes), Fermi's American colleague Arthur Compton excitedly called James Bryant Conant at Harvard's Office of Scientific Research and Development:
"The Italian navigator has reached the New World," he announced. "And how did he find the natives?" Conant asked. "Very friendly," Compton replied.
[Thus was the atomic age announced. After "boiling the egg," the scientists celebrated by passing around a bottle of Champagne and paper cups and an administrator famously used a code to report the news to Washington: "The Italian navigator (Fermi)" had "landed in the new world." Leo Szilard was less delighted; he shook Fermi's hand -- and remarked that December 2nd would go down as a black day in the history of mankind.]
[The reactor, which stood twenty feet tall, comprised 31 "piles" (built from 771,000 pounds of graphite, 80,590 pounds of uranium-oxide powder and 12,400 pounds of uranium metal). Slippery graphite dust caused 30 accidents and got into eyes, noses, ears, and mouths. Surgical masks were issued, but were rarely used. Why? They interfered with the researchers' smoking and singing.]
Sources
P. Dunaway, Turning Point; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
