A Biography of Dr. John M. Googin - Y-12 National Security ...

FYI
There was an interesting mix of people on military
status who worked on the project. These people
in the military were selected from all branches based
on their skills and came in two kinds: Those who
worked just like the civilian employees; and those
who were the “military” group that were the counterparts
of the DOE of today, and were ultimately
the managers of the operations. Some, who were
seen in company clothes most every day, would
suddenly appear as uniformed military officers for a
time. When General Groves was expected, there
were the usual attempts to make things look better
than they really were.
Some time was taken to write to buddies in the
service and to home. You could not say much, beyond
that you were working on something big and it might
keep them out of Japan. One person being staged for
Japan wrote back that he already knew of radar and
proximity fuses, but what else could you say? After
Hiroshima there were notes of thanks.
One could take the bus to Knoxville, which was
under its own pall of black smoke in the winter, and
visit the library at the University of Tennessee where
the texts that mentioned uranium were found to be
well used. They would fall open at the interesting
pages, and there was that discolored streak along the
closed pages.
There really was a lot of social life in Oak Ridge;
bt for the author, the more-than-one-shift-a-day
work pace interfered with much of it in the time
period of ’44 & ’45. Dances at the tennis courts were
a feature in the summer. There were tales about what
might have gone on in the houses where six young
men lived together, and other houses where six
young women did the same.
FYI 44
Some Specifics on the Job. Nearly all of the
process operations, either chemical, physical or
clerical, were performed by the ladies of East Tennessee.
There were mostly men in the technical, engineering
and maintenance crews.
The laboratory of the author, with its vacuum
furnace, became a resource to the ladies in the 9202
area. This was where mercury cathodes were used to
put uranium in the burgundy three-valent state, then
air was used to get the green four-valent state which
was precipitated with oxalic acid to form uranium
(+4) oxalate to obtain concentration and purification
of the Beta cycle uranium. This was part of the
enriched uranium (the Beta machine recycle) process
that was located in 9202 in the early days of 1944.
The ladies who operated the oxalate process
were always getting their gold jewelry exposed to
traces of mercury, and the vacuum furnace in the BT
laboratory was routinely used to remove the contamination
before the rings and such were destroyed.
Some still came out frosted, unfortunately. It was
known that some of this mercury got into the drains
from 9202.
The career was moving along. The weekly pay
with much overtime was good; but this became the
monthly pay without overtime when a position
promotion was given, yielding a sizable cut in the net
pay. T. P. (Ted) Sprague joined the BT technical group
and later Tom Strickland was added. With a technician
or two, as required, there was soon a considerable
power in the group. Sam Vitilla, the original
group leader, left for other positions. The range of
interests of the group kept expanding from basic
chemistry and chemical engineering. Corrosion,