User:El.Guapo6564/Westinghouse Atom Smasher

Wartime Efforts
During the second world war, Westinghouse decided to suspend its fundamental research efforts, and instead focused on researching microwave radar. This is similar to how M.I.T and Harvard also began their own organizations to study radiation and radio during the war. The atom smasher was shut down so that Westinghouse could focus on the electronics department. Many of the contributors to the Westinghouse project moved onto find other jobs during this period of shut down, but stayed closely connected to the nuclear research that was happening during the time.

In Westinghouse's Lamp Division in Bloomfield, NJ; they had begun production of uranium metal to be used in the first atomic pile. Before his time as the Director of Research in the Lamp Division, Harvey Rentschler developed a method in reducing uranium salts into metal to study its possible uses as a lamp filament. He found that the melting point was too low to be used and decided to shut down the project, until the atomic pile in Chicago began. The only immediate source for these uranium metals was in Bloomfield, NJ and Rentschler was asked to begin production of these metals again for this new project. He started with a crude, low level production line using galvanized was tubs as vessels before enlarging the project to further the production. E. U. Condon as well as some other atom smasher workers, were sent to work closely on the Manhattan district's efforts in separating uranium isotopes. The atom smasher itself was used as a compressed air tank for jet engine development during the war.

As the war ended, Westinghouse returned to its normal activities, bringing back many workers and the refurbished atom smasher. It was found, however, that the iron used for the atom smasher became brittle in low temperatures and the atom smasher may have taken damage during the war. This fact was found when several Liberty ships sailed through the freezing waters of Alaska, their exteriors began to crack and break up, causing the ships to sink due to the metal's failure.

History
The Westinghouse Atom Smasher was created due to the interest and development of physics in the early 1900s. In the year 1932, there were some major advancements in the research of nuclear physics. John D. Cockroft and Ernest Walton produced the first nuclear disintegrations using artificially accelerated particles and James Chadwick discovered the neuron. With the discovery of the nucleus being fresh, much research was being done on how to commercialize it. The atom smasher was made to perform the same tasks as the Van de Graaff generator, but at a much larger scale with higher voltages. The Westinghouse atom smasher was the first particle accelerator built to be industrialized. It was used to force atoms to collide into each other at speeds close to the speed of light to create new particles and radiation. These new particles were able to help scientists learn about the basics of matter. The atom smasher remained upright until 1958, but it saw little use after the end of World War II.