The Ames Project was a research and development project that was part of the larger Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was founded by Frank Spedding from Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa as an offshoot of the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago devoted to chemistry and metallurgy, but became a separate project in its own right. The Ames Project developed the Ames Process, a method for preparing pure uranium metal that the Manhattan Project needed for its atomic bombs and nuclear reactors. Between 1942 and 1945, it produced over of uranium metal. It also developed methods of preparing and casting thorium, cerium and beryllium. In October 1945 Iowa State College received the Army-Navy "E" Award for Excellence in Production, an award usually only given to industrial organizations. In 1947 it became the Ames Laboratory, a national laboratory under the Atomic Energy Commission.
Background
The discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick in 1932, followed by that of nuclear fission by German chemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1938, and its theoretical explanation (and naming) by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch soon after, opened up the possibility of a controlled nuclear chain reaction with uranium. On 20 December 1941, soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that brought the United States into World War II, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Arthur H. Compton was placed in charge of the plutonium project, the objective of which was to produce reactors to convert uranium into plutonium, to find ways to chemically separate plutonium from the uranium, and ultimately to design and build an atomic bomb. This became the Manhattan Project. Although a successful reactor had not yet been built, the scientists had already produced several different but promising design concepts.
Compton established the project's Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago in February 1942. Its mission was to build nuclear reactors to create plutonium that would be used in atomic bombs. For advice on assembling the laboratory's Chemistry Division, Compton, a physicist, turned to Herbert McCoy, who had considerable experience with isotopes and radioactive elements. McCoy recommended Frank Spedding from Iowa State College in Ames, Iowa, as an expert on the rare-earth elements, which were chemically similar to the actinide series that included uranium and plutonium. Compton asked Spedding to become the head of the Metallurgical Laboratory's Chemistry Division.
Owing to a lack of space at the University of Chicago, Spedding proposed to organize part of the Chemistry Division at Iowa State College, where he had colleagues who were willing to help. It was agreed that Spedding would spend half of each week in Ames, and half in Chicago. The intention was that staff at Ames would eventually move to Chicago when space became available, but this never happened. The success of the Ames Project ensured that it became a separate laboratory within the Manhattan Project.
Organization
Spedding started by recruiting two fellow scientists at Iowa State College to become his associate directors; Harley A. Wilhelm, an expert in spectrochemistry and metallurgy, as the head of the Ames Project's Metallurgy Division, and Iral B. Johns as the head of the Plutonium Division. Under them were eight section chiefs. The Ames Project grew to over 90 scientific staff. The total number of staff eventually exceeded 500. Senior staff would meet on Sunday mornings to review the previous week's work and set goals for the week ahead, a process that came to be called "Speddinars". At first Spedding had to depart for Chicago soon after each meeting, but in early 1943 he was succeeded as head of the chemistry division at the Metallurgical Laboratory by James Franck, allowing Spedding to spend more time at Ames. He remained an associate director at the Metallurgical Laboratory.
Spedding was fortunate in having the full support of Charles E. Friley, the president of Iowa State College, even though the nature of the work could not at first be disclosed to him while security checks were being undertaken. Once these were completed, Friley brought in Harold V. Gaskill, the dean of science, as the Ames Project's administrator. The United States Army Corps of Engineers took control of the Manhattan Project in June 1942, and the Ames Project in late 1942.