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Mcdaniel, Paul William, 1916-2004 (Mss 515), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Oct 2014

Mcdaniel, Paul William, 1916-2004 (Mss 515), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 515. Writings and awards of Paul William McDaniel, nuclear physicist and graduate of Western Kentucky University. Includes typescripts of lectures delivered at Queensland University, a journal he kept while serving in World War II, and a copy of his Arthur F. Fleming Award. Also includes many letters of congratulations to him and a copy of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946.


'An Explosive Of Quite Unimaginable Force': Did Werner Heisenberg Obstruct German Atomic Bomb Research?, Aaron G. Noll Mar 2014

'An Explosive Of Quite Unimaginable Force': Did Werner Heisenberg Obstruct German Atomic Bomb Research?, Aaron G. Noll

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

Why was Nazi Germany unable to acquire an atomic bomb during World War II? An answer to this question necessarily involves an analysis of the wartime conduct of Werner Heisenberg. As the undisputed leader of German nuclear research, Heisenberg was integral to the successful production of a bomb. Heisenberg claimed after the war that the Nazis lacked the economic resources for this project. Moreover, Nazi military strategy ruled out such a sustained long-term commitment in armaments development. Heisenberg explained that he personally felt fortunate that these circumstances prevented Hitler from having a bomb. He argued that he merely “pretended” to …