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The race was on to construct one of the most deadly weapons in the history of warfare(Chamberlin 8). There was reason to fear that Germany would beat the U.S. in discovering the bomb, because fission was discovered in Germany and German scientists could use the concept in the development of the bomb(Documentation 2). Fission is when a neutron can cause the nucleus of a uranium atom to break into two(Documentation 7). From there, German scientists then began expanding on the concept of fission. Germany stopped the sale of uranium ore from the rich mines in Czechoslovakia in order for scientist to have ample supplies to produce the bomb.
With the threat of the biggest weapon in history about to be constructed by the enemy, the U.S. had to get to work. The work was done in what is called a self - imposed blackout on publication in order to keep German scientists from using the work of U.S. scientists to speed up the development of their bomb, and get the advantage of the United States in the war. Their work was done at 3 main facilities; Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos(Allen 22). Within a few months, scientist in America, and Europe, and American ally, had made two important discoveries. They discovered that the fission had occurred in the uranium isotope U - 235, which makes up only 1 part in 140 of natural uranium. The rest of the uranium, consisting of U - 238, had taken no part in the reaction(Documentation 7). They also showed that each fission event released 2 or 3 neutrons. This made it possible to experiment with a chain reaction, in which the neutrons released from one fission would lead to more than one fission(Documentation 8). If American scientists could make this reaction a reality, the explosion would be tremendous, due to the increase in neutrons and energy. In a chain reaction, the material would heat up, liquefy, vaporize, and explode. By the time the uranium was vaporized it would have an energy content comparable to that of an equal amount of a chemical high explosive such as 20 million tons of TNT.