LBNL Image Library -- Collection BERKELEY-LAB/PEOPLE/INDIVIDUALS

Image File: 96602758
Title: Lawrence slumps from fatigue during calutron test
Description: Ernest O. Lawrence slumps from fatigue in his chair at the control panel of the cyclotron during calutron test. In August the first racetrack began to operate, successfully it was thought; but it soon collapsed, its vacuum leaky, its coils shorted, its tanks warped by its mighty magnet. Meanwhile Oppenheimer reported that a bomb would require three times as much U 235 as forecast. Lawrence and others flew in from Berkeley to diagnose the ailing racetrack, which was dismantled and returned to its manufacturers. The pressure overwhelmed even Lawrence. He spent the end of 1943 in a hospital in Chicago. (The preceding information was excerpted from the text of the Fall 1981 issue of LBL Newsmagazine.)
Citation Caption: LBL NEWS Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 3, Fall 1981, p. 33 | Lawrence slumps in his chair from fatigue during calutron test.
People: Ernest Orlando Lawrence
TEID Doc ID: XBD 9606-02758.TIF