grinder wrote:Hey Langley,
Something very Pugwash about Brown? Can you translate that for me? I have to admit never having seen that word before.
Hi Grinder. I was thinking Pugwash as in the anti bomb (as opposed to anti nuclear - 2 different things in the beginning) movement
"THE Russell-Einstein Manifesto was issued on 9th July 1955 in London at a Press Conference held in Caxton Hall.
A few days after the publication of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto Mr. Cyrus Eaton sent a letter to Bertrand Russell offering to finance the Conference of scientists which was called for in the Manifesto, and suggesting that it be held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. This offer was not taken up because at that time it was planned to hold the Conference in India, where Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was very keen on the Conference of scientists and had offered hospitality for it.
It took about a year before the plans for the meeting in New Delhi were formulated. Russell asked the two other British signatories of the Manifesto, Cecil Powell and Joseph Rotblat, to help him in the preparation of the Conference. Eric Burhop, who collaborated with Powell in the World Federation of Scientific Workers, was also involved.
In discussions between these four, a preliminary agenda and a list of invitees, to make a total of about 20 participants, were prepared. It was agreed that the letter should be signed by Russell on behalf of the signatories of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto. The first step, therefore, was for Russell to write to the signatories to obtain their agreement to the draft of the letter of invitation; these letters were dispatched on 6th July 1956.
It took several weeks for the replies to come in. Eventually, out of the nine signatories (apart from Russell) who were alive at that time, seven agreed; the only two to decline were both Americans: Percy Bridgman and Hermann Muller (but the latter subsequently changed his mind, and came to the 1957 Conference in Pugwash).
Letters of invitation as agreed by the signatories were sent on 29 August to 27 scientists; a few weeks later a further 8 scientists were invited. The 35 invitees were as follows:
* Adrian, Haddow* and Hinshelwood (UK)
* Beadle, Bronk, Compton, Oppenheimer, Rabinowitch* and Weisskopf (USA)
* Peter Kapitza, Nesmeyanov*, Nuzhdin, Oparin*, Sissakian*, Skobeltzyn* and Topchiev* (USSR)
* Hahn, Heisenberg and Rajewski* (FRG)
* de Broglie and Lacassagne* (France)
* Tomonaga* and Tsuzuki* (Japan)
* Kothari* and Krishnan (India)
* Amaldi (Italy)
* Niels Bohr (Denmark)
* Burgess (Netherlands)
* de Castro* (Brazil)
* de Hevesy* (Sweden)
* Hertz* (GDR)
* Li-Tze-Kuang* (China)
* Oliphant* (Australia)
* Schweitzer (Gabon )
* Thirring* (Austria)
Eighteen of these (their names are asterisked) accepted. Those who refused gave as reasons previous engagements or ill-health. Only a very few doubted the value of the proposed Conference.
From among the Russell-Einstein signatories, five (Infeld, Pauling, Powell, Rotblat and Yukawa) expressed willingness to participate in the Conference in New Delhi. Thus, there would have been a total of 23 scientists, roughly the number planned by the organizers.
Although in the letter of invitation, the latter half of December 1956 was given as the date for the meeting, in subsequent letters the date was fixed for 9 - 12 January 1957.
In the event, the plans for the New Delhi meeting had to be aborted. The uneasy political situation following the Suez and Hungary crises was one reason. The other was the failure to secure funds for travel expenses. Consequently, letters were sent on 22 November 1956 to all those who accepted, informing them of the cancellation of the Conference.
It was at that stage that the initial offer made by Cyrus Eaton was recalled. In an exchange of cables it was quickly agreed that the Conference could be held in July 1957 in Pugwash. Another set of letters, this time including a draft agenda, was despatched on 8 February 1957. It was addressed to those of the earlier invitees to New Delhi who had either accepted or had refused because of previous engagements. In addition, 18 new invitations were sent to the following: Massey and Waddington (UK); Bethe, Harrison-Brown, Cavers, Doty, Selove, Smyth, Szilard, Urey and Weaver (USA); Kuzin (USSR)*, BrockChisholm (Canada)*, Chou-Pei-Yuan (China); Rehberg (Denmark); Butenandt (FRG); Ogawa (Japan); and Danysz (Poland). At the request of Mr. Cyrus Eaton another Canadian, John Foster, was also invited.
Several of those who have replied in the affirmative to the invitation to Pugwash (Haddow, Hertz, Nesmeyanov and Waddington) subsequently withdrew, mainly due to ill-health. Of the Russell-Einstein signatories, Infeld and Pauling also had to withdraw.
http://www.pugwash.org/about/conference.htm
It was a collection of scientists who were against the use of atomic bombs.
They investigated and protested the effects of these weapons, and were a thorn in the side of Teller (US) and Titterton (Australia).
Through Paul's book, I have found the story of Gunn. It is a story the routine sources ignore. The history of the Manhattan Project is incomplete without the Naval Research Labs contribution. esp the Uranium enrichment breakthrough at the Philidephia Naval ShipYard. The popular mythos of the Philly Experiment thus appears a cover story.
Brown worked with Gunn. Brown's radiation biology lab in Los Angeles seems to be an excersize in competing with Tellers own biological effects research (which was used in a controlled way to show the bombs were safe) . The Pugwash scientists presented findings which aimed to contradict Teller, they were convinced that Teller was lying, controlling information, and the detonation of bombs in theatmosphere was unsafe.
I think given the level of animosity between the NRL and the Manhattan Project, Brown would have been doing what he could for the Navy experts, and that the Caroline Group, with its special relationship with the NRL, would have assisted. The members of Pugwash held a humanistic scientific worldview which made it compatible with the Caroline group.
The clincher for me is that 1. Brown, by continuing his radiation/biology research with Shank was probably protected by Gunn and the Naval hierarchy, by the Pugwash scientists, and by the Caroline Group, rendering any attempt by Teller to stop him ineffective. 2. Teller had to access Brown in order to access the knowledge Teller needed. What was happening was a turning of the tables. by 1962 Pugwash, via particularly Pauling, succeeded in convincing Kennedy to go for the Limited Test Ban Treaty.
When one looks up Gunn and his interests, it fits Brown's intestests and undertakings perfectly.
What Brown was doing in Germany in WW2 was probably in competition with Groves, who was MED, and Brown was working primarily for NRL and Caroline. The paper on Gunn and the Naval research into fission documents the tension between the Navy and the Manhattan Project.
Hi Twigsnapper. Wow, none of this is new to you is it? Im quite blown away. I never had an inkling. Groves was a nasty man I think. Without the NRL Groves might have failed.
Are you saying that Brown, as the cabin boy was the front for the Captain, so the NRL kept its hat in the ring via the Teller/Brown relationship?
I am thinking here of Teller's visit to Brown, Teller's pausing before the ion generator, etc. And I personally at that point leap off into the Starfish Prime Project.