I love the description of a bare chested and dust-covered Enrico Fermi pushing graphite blocks by hand. This man had an entire class of particles named after him, as well as numerous other scientific laws and effects. Here he is doing manual labour in order to help the project of his lifetime succeed.

My stepfather, George W. Tressel, made this film for Argonne for the 25 anniversary of CP-1. He had some amazing stories about the making of the film - one of which was how he obtained the only color film of the Hiroshima explosion. Months had passed since they put out a national call for any photos, drawings or other artifacts from the early atomic age. One day they get a call from the guard desk saying someone is claiming to have color film of the explosion. Well, the crew at first dismissed this claim because one, color film was still new at the time and exceedingly expensive - very few people could afford it. Two, they knew there was no film of the explosion because of a technical problem with the official camera. But then they asked the guard for the name of the person and got back, “something Agnew.” Indeed, it was the Harold Agnew and they fell all over themselves racing to get downstairs. Agnew flew on the support plane, the “Great Artiste.” But unbeknownst to anyone, he smuggled aboard his own personal movie camera. And of course, being one of the heads of the project he had access to color film. Gen. Groves was furious to learn Agnew had taken film without permission and confiscated the film. After much discussion Groves allowed Agnew to have a copy. Somewhere along the way the original was lost but Agnew still had his copy and provided it to George. Another important story about this film: around the 28th minute is the long, steady tilting shot of the mushroom cloud. But how did they take such a steady shot? They didn’t. Remember, this film was taken from a handheld camera on a propeller-driven airplane racing away from the scene. “Steadicam” wouldn’t be invented for decades yet; Agnew’s footage was shakier than the Blair Witch Project. All the way back to his days at experimental TV station WBKB (Chicago) George was inventing cutting-edge camera and production equipment. To create that modern Hollywood “Steadicam” shot George invented and built the equipment to manually adjust the position of the film frame-by-frame and re-photograph it into what you see now. Sadly, George passed away at his home in Silver Spring, MD, at the age of 93 on November 17, 2019. George had many, many other accomplishments that have touched untold millions of people’s lives such as creating the very first “news ticker/crawl” for television and being the driving force in bringing closed-captioning to TV and film for the hearing impaired. We miss him dearly already. EDITED TO ADD (Jan 2021): I should have included this in my original comment: @/uchicagoarts @UChicago posted this video. In a nice coincidence, George was a Hutchins Scholar at Chicago (enrolled in 1940 at age 14; earned two degrees (one in physics) by 1945) while Fermi and crew worked on CP-1. He loved to recall the story of how he and his friends used to play squash on the courts under the stadium a couple of times a week. One day he went to play but when he opened the door a soldier holding a rifle blocked his way and demanded to know where he was going. "I am going to play squash," he said. "No you are not," said the soldier. "Why not?" he asked. "There are no squash courts here." "Of course there are, I played here two days ago," replied George. "There are no squash courts here," repeated the soldier while bringing his rifle up to port arms. "Yes, there are," insisted George. "No, there are not," said the soldier as he began to point the business end of the rifle directly at George. George told us he got the message and walked away. Who could have guessed that 25 years later he would be directing and producing the film to commemorate the reason why he couldn't play squash there anymore?

I love these documentaries. Reminds of tv on saturday or sunday morning around 6am.lol

I've heard a story that the head of the Carbon Company discreetly tried to ask how they're going to make diamonds. That's because the graphite had to be so pure that he could imagine no other use for it. In reality the purity was necessary to make sure that graphite doesn't have neutron absorbing materials that would prevent the chain reaction.

What a gem of a production! To see some of those I admire and owe much thanks for providing a foundation for eventual commercialization of the atomic energy of which has provided for many financial as well as educational benefits along with great green energy.

After watching again, I feel the need to acknowledge Leona Libbys` contribution to the creation of the first neutron counter not mentioned in this fine film.

My dad, who was the last remaining person who was present when Fermi created the first self sustaining nuclear chain reaction, was present when Fermi split the atom. My dad was 94. This was the beginning of the nuclear age. My dad was just 17 and out of Tilden Tech highshool. Was a gofer, collected the uranium, and aided Enrico Fermi. What they did might have helped save the world. It sure put a damper on Japan, after they figured how to make the bomb, but if it wasn't for this group, Los Alimos might not have happened.

What a great piece of work, I love how passionate they were and how much fun they seemed to be having, this is going straight on my nuclear playlist.

Great historical record of excellent color film quality from a time when some of the main actors were still young enough to speak in a lively way about the events of the project era. Guessing this is from the late 60s since there appears to be a shot of a completed San Onofre power plant near the end.

Man the safty regulations in those days are fantastic , a guy can realy get some work done under these conditions 12:11

"We just created the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear reaction in history" "Right. Who needs a drink?"

Fermi was the man.

Truly remarkable people and a stunning development project. Dark times and a dark goal but what an amazing achievement from a team we may never see the like of again. Only the Gemini/Apollo program comes close in sheer brilliance in my humble opinion. Both arguably driven by military necessity of course.

Amazing documentary. I wish they had photographs/film of the building process. Maybe because of the secrecy and possible espionage nothing was taken. Only sketches and paintings. Fun Fact: If you look up "Radioactive Boy Scout" or David Hahn. You would be surprised how similar his reactor was from CP-1 except for scale.

I wish there was more history about the “metallurgy labs” in the woods near maple lake where the cp reactor and fuel are buried.

Спасибо за историческую кинохронику!

After discovering the CP-1 and Site A markers in the preserve I bike ride at; I've always wondered what the people working there looked like, how did the are look. This is pretty cool.

28:45 the optimism of the closing remarks documents the state of society at that time the atomic this and nuclear that was all the rage from comics to wallpaper Note that, even at this early time, "energy" is already identified as the key supply to wellbeing. With enough energy even the desert can bloom into flowers, without it even the most fertile land goes untilled.

16:02 The Ames Process (developed at Iowa State University)

Lol. The place was like a giant Etch-A-Sketch.

Plutonium: how to turn lead into gold...

The Industrial Art of Atomic Energy

Dr. Libby, muttered something @26:47. 0_o? A side note. Could you imagine how many test samples she gathered during that stressful development period? During that era.

Enrico Fermi.. Possibly the great of all Italian Americans... He brought us into the Atomic Age!!!!

How best to control these piles? Preparation H.

29:17 we are all part of a silver chain that leads from Greece

I wonder how good it is to be breathing in graphite powder?

Wicked! Drop da bomb!

This was standard Uranium and Uranium Oxide? If so, had large quantities of these materials never been collected together before, say in a warehouse or where these guys stored it? If not, how had it previously emerged that large quantities of Uranium shouldn't be placed together?

ONLY Dr.Greenwalt a physicist from Du Pont working on such a project could get away with speaking in such a manor with that rich , white bred accect , wow !!!!.......what times they were !!!!.............................. Erik

To bad nobody looked past ending the war

13:11 ............

I can see graphite on the floor :) Actually this pile was quite the size of RBMK

fermi

BTW-Bigger or "better" bombs don't end wars, people do. And, dear God with Your help, we the people can--and must--end this delusion, wake up from this captivity to "death, the destroyer of worlds" (Oppenheimer), and commit our time, talent, and treasure to the ways of peace, the welfare of our children, and the future of our planet.

8:01 spoken like a true American! Only one thing on his mind; power and destruction!

up to 1:54, sensationalism. @3:54 scary Nazi images... and then science. @27:14 the world has changed and a genteel sip for all... I admire these men and respect the ethical sacrifices they made The bomb was necessary and perhaps a fair response to Japan's perfidy.

Sorry but , the "the Birthplace" of Atomic Energy lays in Germany.

*WOW!!! If **_only_** they could predict what would happen approximately only 20 years in the future within the city of Chernobyl, I'm **_sure_** they wouldn't be so highly-praising of the "atomic age"!!!*