A National Historical Park and More

When our old friend Bruce and his wife Margaret came to visit us from St. Louis, I worked up a number of things to do, attractions and places to dine out.  I’m not a ‘science guy’ but I remembered an interesting attraction that my high school class had toured when we had our reunion in East Tennessee back in 2015.  It has since moved to one end of a shopping center...

Bruce is much more technically and scientifically minded than I am, plus I knew that the attraction that I had in mind had changed locations as well as status…so I decided that we’d check it out.

This photo was borrowed from the website of the National Museum of Science and Energy.  This museum is part of the 3-state Manhattan Project National Historical Park that was approved on November 10, 2015.  The key sites involved in this wartime strategic project were in Oak Ridge Tennessee, Los Alamos New Mexico and Hanford Washington…and a number of historic sites at each of these locations now comprise this National Historical Park.

FYI…For those who might not know, the Manhattan Project was a research and development effort that was initiated during World War II that culminated in the production and delivery of the world’s first nuclear weapons.  The use of these weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan led to the end of the war, arguably saving many Allied and Japanese lives.

Museum Visitors should begin their visit by watching an informative documentary about Oak Ridge and the Manhattan Project in the gallery shown above.  This area was a top secret military district during WWII.  A total of 59,000 acres were seized by the Federal Government for the project, residents were evicted…and Oak Ridge was born.

The National Museum of Science and Energy is affiliated with the Smithsonian.  Confusingly, this museum isn’t part of the National Park, but it is the hub for the National Park’s activities and it is focused on the Manhattan Project as well as some of the current activities of the Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

Guided bus tours that visit 3 sites that were integral in the Manhattan Project are provided to paying Museum visitors.  Unfortunately, in October the tours are only offered 3 days per week…and we didn’t visit the museum on one of those days.

The Oak Ridge scientific campus during the Manhattan Project era was huge with many structures peppering the landscape.  Communications were a challenge.  Nothing about Oak Ridge was small!  Bicycles like this were used by employees to travel around the K-25 building…which was a mile long.  This particular bike was used in the Cold War expansion building that included K-31, K-32 and K-33.  As for the phone, if you needed to contact someone, you picked it up and sounded the buzzer 1, 2 or 3 times to indicate who you needed to speak to.

Consider this… To make way for the Tennessee portion of the Manhattan Project, eviction notices were tacked to the doors of local residents in November 1942.  Some families had no more than 2 weeks to leave their homes.  By May of 1945, the population of this militarily controlled ‘total exclusion zone’ had grown to 75,000.

The secret city, as it is still called, was almost completely self-contained.  Some of the buildings from that era are still in use.  If you’d like to view some war-time photos of Oak Ridge, you can just go to https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=wartime+photos+of+oak+ridge+tn&id=56C2F526578B8E617A260314EA2BA1E3AA5FA2D9&FORM=IQFRBA 

This is a Calutron Panel with a handmade stool.  There were dozens and dozens of Calutron Panels with related equipment in operation at peak operations in Oak Ridge.  Their purpose was to extract enough fissionable material from uranium ore via electromagnetic action to accumulate enough for a nuclear weapon.  

Each panel was in operation 24 hours a day with women operating it.  Their job was to keep the meter reading at its designated point.  For secrecies sake they weren’t told the purpose of this task… Each machine only produced minuscule amounts of the needed materials.

This is just a general view down one side of the main museum space.  A great percentage of the exhibits are photos with explanations attached.  The segment in this photo is part of the National Security area. 

After the Manhattan Project was completed, the Cold War began.  Oak Ridge and its Laboratory played a key role in the advancement and exploration of atomic power plus other ways to keep America safe.  Nuclear powered submarines and nuclear disarmament were all part of this effort.

Of course, I tend to gravitate to the ‘old stuff’.  From the left:

·       Dalton mechanical adding machine

·       Columbia Graphophone Co. Dictaphone. (When someone spoke into it, their voice was recorded on wax cylinders)

·       In the center back is a Dosimeter…which measured employee’s radiation badges to detect exposure levels.

·       Next to the Dosimeter is a Hoskins Pyrometer which was used to measure high temperatures.

·       Carl Zeiss-jena Microscope

·       Then of course, we have a rotary dial telephone.

·       Last but not least, a 1941 Underwood Typewriter.

I did leave out one item in the preceding photo.  Try getting anyone under the age of 50 to tell you what this is and how you use it!  This fancy slide rule, (a mechanical calculator), was used at Oak Ridge to perform a plethora of mechanical calculations, including logarithms. 

Then there are the seemingly mundane items on display.  This barrel isn’t for beer…but rather served as a container for safely transporting radioactive materials from one facility to another.

Of course, Oak Ridge Laboratories are still alive and prospering.  However in this era, the mission goes far beyond nuclear fission and nuclear power.  Much of the focus in on energy including water, solar and wind power.  Obviously this type of research impacts all of us.

The photo above includes a number of scientific instruments.  From the left we have:

·       CR7 Measurement and Control System by Campbell Scientific.  It measures temperature, water potential and content plus humidity in soil, air and water as well as tree diameter, its water use and more.

·       The small items in the front center are Plant Water Potential Sensors that can be used in the back country.  These Scholander Pressure Chambers measure drought stress and evaluate the movement of water content through plant tissue.

·       Next we have a Li-Cor Biosciences Li-7500.  It measures the exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapor between the earth’s surface and the atmosphere.

·       At the right is a Li-6252. It measures carbon dioxide concentration in the air and measures photosynthesis and soil or plant respiration.

All of the above information is way over the top for my non-scientific mind!

I was a little startled to see these tree stumps/chunks on exhibit.  These pieces of 4-year old popular trees all came from the same field.  So why are they different sizes?  Genetic study by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory may unlock ways to produce more energy from biomass…

So what is this jeep doing in the “Big Science” portion of the museum?  Since WWII, ORNL has led the nation in scientific research and related applications.  Projects range from microscopic gigantic.  Nanotechnology, the world’s fastest supercomputer and 3D printing all fall within the scope of the Lap’s efforts.  As a matter of fact, this jeep was completed totally via 3D printing technology!  It’s a little mind boggling for the layperson.

While the original efforts at Oak Ridge didn’t account for environmental impact, the facility has led the way to solve past problems and in re- mediating efforts to clean up our planet. 

In some ways this ‘outfit’ resembles a space suit.  However in reality it is a complete hooded chemical resistant suit with a positive pressure full face self-contained breathing apparatus, 2 protective layers of gloves and chemical resistant boots… All the better for a hazardous chemical clean-up effort!  

Unless you are a conspiracy theorist and you believe that this event was faked by the government, the rest of us are still celebrating the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing.  This control desk from Mission Control was on exhibit as a traveling exhibit at the American Museum of Science and Energy.

As I stated before, I’m not very scientifically orientated.  So what did I miss most from the previous AMSE Museum’s exhibit?

Actually Laurie and I both missed being able to visit this structure and being able to let Margaret and Bruce explore it as well.  There is a huge 'people story' behind the Manhattan Project.  This was one of the simple yet functional homes that were erected in a hurry when the Project was initiated.  Oak Ridge had to have a place for the thousands of employees and their families to work.

Something termed ‘Hutments’ were initially provided but these tract homes soon followed.  There were about 20 different layouts.  Dorms were constructed for single men and women.  The one shown above is the one that we were able to see on our previous visit but it is 'in storage'.

To learn more about this housing project and for a floor plan, go to https://savingplaces.org/stories/building-the-secret-cities-pre-fab-architecture-of-the-manhattan-project#.XcHHMOhKhPY.  

The American Museum of Science and Energy with the portal for the bus tours of the Oak Ridge portion of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park is located at 115 East Main Street in Oak Ridge Tennessee.  Phone: 865-294-4531.  The museum’s website is at https://amse.org/.  The National Historical Park’s website is at https://www.nps.gov/mapr/index.htm.

So…the next day Margaret and Laurie wanted to go shopping for plants and more, so Bruce and I set off on another adventure. (Our ‘find’ will be the subject of another post)

With Margaret being a Master Gardner and overall ‘plant person’, Laurie decided to take advantage of an opportunity that I couldn’t refute.  The ladies started out with lunch at Mimi’s Bistro and Bakery where they enjoyed a matching ‘mix and match’ tomato bisque soup and a 3 cheese grilled sandwich for lunch.

I expected a lot of live plants when Bruce and I returned home.  Actually, we got home before Laurie and Margaret returned.  As it turned out, it wasn’t just all about live plants.  They stopped at Hobby Lobby, a place that Laurie would have a hard time convincing me to visit, and this decorative faux Christmas tree will decorate our living area come the Christmas Holidays!.

Then onto the front porch of our home.  With Margaret’s input, Laurie ‘scored’ those 2 big planters, 2 faux decorative arborvitae bushes from Hobby Lobby and a plethora of real pansies.  As the ladies told me, they ‘saved’ me a lot of money as the Hobby Lobby purchases were half off!!  I’ve never understood how one saves money by buying things that they don’t really need…but at least Laurie was a happy camper and they add a lovely and inviting look to our front door.  Thank you Margaret!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave