Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/MAUD Committee/archive1

MAUD Committee

 * Nominator(s): JMcC (talk) and  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  10:43, 20 May 2020 (UTC)''

This article is about the MAUD Committee, which performed a feasibility study of the claims in the Frisch-Peierls memorandum that an atomic bomb was practical. It led to the establishment of the British, American and Russian development projects. Hawkeye7  (discuss)  10:43, 20 May 2020 (UTC)

Source review
All of the sources appear to be of high quality and reliable. I searched for other academic papers regarding the committee, and didn't find anything other than a 1993 article by Gowing in the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science DOI: 10.1098/rsnr.1993.0007, but it looks from the abstract to be mainly about Chadwick rather than the committee per se. As I raised at Milhist ACR, the 2011 book The First War of Physics: The Secret History of the Atom Bomb, 1939-1949 by Jim Baggott seems to have a bit about the committee. Have you looked at it? Spotchecks not conducted due to nominators long history at FAC. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 00:31, 24 May 2020 (UTC)


 * I have Gowing's paper. Although I have a large library of works on the British bomb project, I don't have Baggott, and it isn't in the libraries here.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:27, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Worldcat seems to think ACT Library and Information Service has it. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 05:40, 24 May 2020 (UTC)


 * It's a general history like Rhodes, but much shorter. The sources I have used are more detailed.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  23:11, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

All images are free and correctly licensed, no issues. buidhe 01:13, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Image review—pass

Comments Support by PM
I reviewed this article at Milhist ACR in 2018, and going through it again, couldn't find much to quibble about. A few comments: That's all I could find. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 01:34, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * "These reports discussed the feasibility and necessity of an atomic bomb for the war effort" and also the use of uranium to generate heat energy presumably?
 * Yes. Added.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * should Fritz Kalckar be redlinked?
 * I don't think so. He died at age 27 in 1938, so this is his only notable work. Had he lived he might have become like Bohr's other protégés. His brother Herman has an article though.
 * "while th at e latter"
 * Well spotted.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * comma after Minister for Coordination of Defence
 * Added.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * link Imperial College London
 * Linked.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Otto Frisch→Frisch
 * Dropped.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * introduce Cockroft properly at first mention, and John Cockroft→Cockroft and drop the later link
 * Introduced.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * link Royal Society
 * Linked.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * say that Frederick Lindemann was primary scientific adviser to Churchill
 * Said.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * link Internment
 * Linked.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * suggest "in the American journal Physical Review"
 * Added.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * say that Lord Melchett was deputy chair of ICI
 * Gowing just says he was a director, so went with that.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * " Hans von Halban and Lew Kowarski"
 * Done.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * link nuclear reactor at first mention in the body
 * Linked.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)
 * link Manhattan Project
 * Linked.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * suggest "by atomic spies for the Soviet Union, including Fuchs."
 * Added a bit.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * link Lyman James Briggs
 * Already linked.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * say who Ernest Lawrence was, ie Nobel physicist
 * Compton too.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Harold Urey in full and link
 * Yes, he got one too.
 * same with George B. Pegram
 * He didn't win one.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * say who Lavrenty Beria was
 * Added.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  04:24, 24 May 2020 (UTC)
 * Great stuff, supporting. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 01:14, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

Support from AustralianRupert
G'day, Hawkeye, nice work as always. I have a suggestions/comments below: AustralianRupert (talk) 07:58, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "Regardless of how crazy it seemed" --> "crazy" seems a little informal, is there potentially another way to say this?
 * Deleted.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "from each University laboratory" --> " from each university laboratory" (lower case "u")?
 * Well spotted. Deacpped.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "it was not considered worthwhile to immediately" --> "it was not considered necessary to immediately"?
 * Changed as suggested.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "Frisch-Peierls Memorandum" (header) --> endash instead of hyphen? Also should it be a lower case "memorandum"? In the text you use lower case
 * Should be a hyphen. And lower case.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "response to the Peierls-Frisch memorandum" or "Frisch-Peierls"? (name order)
 * Weird. Swapped.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "funded out of the universities' own pockets" (seems a bit informal)
 * Probably trying to avoid saying "funds" twice. Re-worded.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "which also began to pay some university staff's salaries" --> "which also began to pay some salaries for university staff"?
 * Re-worded as suggested.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "he was only able to get involved because of Peierls, who pointed out" --> "he was only able to get involved after Peierls vouched for him, pointing out that..."
 * Re-worded as suggested.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * not sure if this is completely necessary: "This is based on Graham's law, which states that the rate of effusion of a gas through a porous barrier is inversely proportional to the square root of the gas's molecular mass. In a container with a porous barrier containing a mixture of two gases, the lighter molecules will pass out of the container more rapidly than the heavier molecules. The gas leaving the container is slightly enriched in the lighter molecules, while the residual gas is slightly depleted". Perhaps, "Basing their work around Graham's law, Simon's team..."
 * I'm not sure how well-known Graham's Law is; it wasn't on the physics syllabus when I was in high school, but likely was back then. I picked up a pen and paper to convince myself. (It's easy to derive.) However,m if I had been asked to separate two isotopes, it wouldn't have been my first guess.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Nor mine, but despite being an engineer, I actually only know how to break things. Perils of a corps-allocation system that doesn't take into account one's undergraduate degree... ;-) AustralianRupert (talk) 10:16, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * "kilogram per day of uranium enriched to 99 per cent uranium-235" --> "kilogram per day of uranium-235 enriched to 99 per cent"?
 * That would be incorrect. The enriched uranium would be 99% uranium-235 and 1% uranium. In practice, the plant would not have been capable of enriching it this much.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Ack, no worries, my concern was to try to reduce repetition of the word "uranium" but this doesn't seem possible given what you say. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 10:16, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * suggest maybe adding a very short sentence to both the US and Soviet sections detailing when they successfully produced an atomic bomb? This information is in the linked main articles, so would only need to be very short.
 * Added.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * the following terms appear to be overlinked: Klaus Clusius; Physical Review and Manhattan Project
 * Corrected.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)


 * All points addressed.  Hawkeye7   (discuss)  09:32, 13 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks, added my support above. Regards, AustralianRupert (talk) 10:16, 13 June 2020 (UTC)

Coord note
Hi Hawkeye, I'd want to see commentary from someone outside the MilHist fraternity, perhaps see if you can scare one up? Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 07:54, 14 June 2020 (UTC)

Support from Graham Beards
This is an excellent article. I have a copy of Clark's "The Birth of the Bomb" and I was familiar with this history during my time at The University of Birmingham during the 1970s. (I walked past the Poynting Building most days). There's a couple of videos on You Tube and this website which complement the article, but this is the most comprehensive account that I have read. Graham Beards (talk) 10:49, 14 June 2020 (UTC)