pdf - WHALE

method as described by Bernstein, and that by Wilcox. Perhaps the
latter described a modification made to the original method, with
extremes of heat and cold being applied.
Harteck, Wirtz, and Heisenberg then continue the subject to
isotope separation and enrichment a little further on:
HARTECK: They have managed it with mass spectrographs on a large
scale or else they have been successful with a photochemical process.
WIRTZ: Well I would say photochemistry or diffusion, ordinary
diffusion. They irradiate it with a particular wavelength (all talking
together).
At this juncture, Bernstein again observes that "it is not clear" what
this photochemical process is. 27 In any case, whatever the process
was, Wirtz's mention of it and of irradiation with a particular
"wavelength" appears to have provoked a burst of conversation
from the other scientists. Were they intentionally trying to drown
him out and mask his statements so as not to be recorded We will
never know. But in any case, the conversation continues:
HARTECK: Or using mass spectrographs in enormous quantities. It
is perhaps possible for a mass spectrograph to make 1 milligram in
one day - say of "235." They could make quite a cheap mass
spectrograph, which, in very large quantities, might cost a hundred
dollars. You could do it with 100,000 mass spectrographs.
Again, Bernstein's comment is suggestive: "This is essentially what
the Allies did." 28 But it is also, as we have seen, very probably
what the Germans did at the "Buna plant" at Auschwitz and later,
in the large underground factories run by Kammler's SS
Sonderkommando. The Farm Hall scientists, as to be expected,
seemed totally oblivious to this program, but have worked out the
basic facts for themselves.
HEISENBERG: Yes, of course, if you do it like that, and they seem to
have worked on that scale, 180,000 people were working on it.
27
28
Bernstein, op. cit., p. 120, n. 37.
Ibid., p. 120, n. 38.
148