The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

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The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Page 43

by Denise Kiernan


  Wilkinson, Paul, 116, 218–19

  Dot’s marriage to, 216, 217–18

  Williams, Hal, 145

  Wiltrout, Glen, 112

  wine, 143–44

  Winnie the Pooh (Milne), 76

  Women’s Air Corps (WAC), 111–12, 155

  Women’s National Press Club, 294

  Wood, Nancy Farley, 288

  Woods, Leona, xiv, 75–78

  World Set Free, The (Wells), ix

  World’s Fair, 113

  World War II, 5–6, 25–26, 133–34, 151, 185, 238, 272

  B-29s in, 230, 252

  end of, 272–73, 299

  in Europe, end of, 227–30

  news of, 133–34

  in Pacific, 134, 230, 238; see also Japan Pearl Harbor, 56, 154, 250, 253, 273, 308

  Statement of Availability employment program during, 84, 87, 168

  X

  X-10 plant, xvi, 29, 53, 83–84, 100, 196, 259, 278, 279

  construction of, 100

  name of, 105

  as scientific research facility, 295

  X-rays, 279

  Y

  Yamada, Kisetsu, 307

  Y-12 plant, xiii, xvi, 29, 68, 83–84, 100, 187, 191, 192, 203–4, 205–6, 243, 247, 259, 300, 301, 302, 311, 313, 314

  accident at, 206

  adding machines at, 119–20, 247, 301

  basketball team of, 141

  calutron cubicle operators at, 103, 109, 112–17, 120, 189, 262

  clerks at, 119–22

  closing of, 277, 295

  codes used at, 119

  construction of, 100

  cost of, 206

  electromagnetic separation process at, 101, 102–5, 106, 109, 192

  name of, 105

  scale of operations at, 104, 105, 106, 119

  York, Ken, 180–81

  Touchstone

  A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  www.SimonandSchuster.com

  Copyright © 2013 by Denise Kiernan All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Touchstone Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

  Map on pp. xviii–xix reproduced from Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb (Vincent C. Jones, Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1985).

  All photos are by James Edward Westcott, courtesy of the National Archives, with the exception of: insert page 1, top left, courtesy of Celia Klemski; insert page 1, top right, courtesy of Colleen Black; insert page 1, bottom, courtesy of Jane Puckett; insert page 16, top left, courtesy of the author; insert page 16, top right, courtesy of the author; insert page 16, bottom, courtesy of Jack Parker.

  First Touchstone hardcover edition March 2013

  TOUCHSTONE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

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  Designed by Ruth Lee-Mui

  ISBN 978-1-4516-1752-8

  ISBN 978-1-4516-1754-2 (ebook)

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  Principal Cast of Characters

  Map—Clinton Engineer Works, Tennessee, 1943–1945

  Revelation, August 1945

  1: EVERYTHING WILL BE TAKEN CARE OF : TRAIN TO NOWHERE, AUGUST 1943

  Tubealloy: The Bohemian Grove to the Appalachian Hills, September 1942

  2: PEACHES AND PEARLS: THE TAKING OF SITE X, FALL 1942

  Tubealloy: Ida and the Atom, 1934

  3: THROUGH THE GATES: CLINTON ENGINEER WORKS, FALL 1943

  Tubealloy: Lise and Fission, 1938

  4: BULL PENS AND CREEPS: THE PROJECT’S WELCOME FOR NEW EMPLOYEES

  Tubealloy: Leona and Success in Chicago, December 1942

  5: ONLY TEMPORARY: SPRING INTO SUMMER, 1944

  Tubealloy: The Quest for Product

  6: TO WORK

  Tubealloy: The Couriers

  7: RHYTHMS OF LIFE

  Tubealloy: Security, Censorship, and the Press

  8: THE ONE ABOUT THE FIREFLIES . . .

  Tubealloy: Pumpkins, Spies, and Chicken Soup, Fall 1944

  9: THE UNSPOKEN: SWEETHEARTS AND SECRETS

  Tubealloy: Combining Efforts in the New Year

  10: CURIOSITY AND SILENCE

  Tubealloy: The Project’s Crucial Spring

  11: INNOCENCE LOST

  Tubealloy: Hope and the Haberdasher, April–May 1945

  12: SAND JUMPS IN THE DESERT, JULY 1945

  13: THE GADGET REVEALED

  14: DAWN OF A THOUSAND SUNS

  15: LIFE IN THE NEW AGE

  Epilogue

  Photographs

  Reading Group Guide

  About Denise Kiernan

  Notes

  Acknowledgments

  Index

 

 

 


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