Description:

(MANHATTAN PROJECT) NORMAN F. RAMSEY
NORMAN F. RAMSEY (1915–2011) American physicist who was awarded the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics. Drafted by Robert Oppenheimer to join the Manhattan Project, Ramsey was tasked with selected the appropriate bomb delivery aircraft and radar bomb tracking apparatus. He also briefed the 509th's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, on the nature of the mission and was involved in the assembly of the Fat Man bomb. It was Ramsey who advised Groves of the success of the bombing of Hiroshima. Superb content and association T.L.S. on Harvard University Dept. of Physics letterhead, 1p. 4to., Cambridge, July 11, 1960 to Gen. LESLIE R. GROVES (1896-1970), the American general who, with Robert Oppenheimer, headed the Manhattan Project in the development of the first atomic bomb. Ramsey expresses his delight at having received Groves' congratulatory letter, adding that he also appreciated 'your praise of my work at Los Alamos' and continuing: 'In this connection I should also like to thank you again for the excellent support which you gave to me in our work at Los Alamos and Tinian. I am afraid that we made a number of difficult requests of you but you always supported them both vigorously and effectively. I can well remember my pleasant surprise in discovering that you had succeeded in extracting from the Air Force one of their very first B-29's. In fact you may not realize that the first B-29 ever to appear at Wright Field was the one for the Manhattan District project. For a long time we had a high priority with the Air Force solely on the basis of the fact that any project that could extract a B-29 must be of greatest priority'. In concluding Ramsey conveys his hope that, if Groves is in Cambridge, ´several of the old Los Alamos group here-like Ken Bainbridge, Francis Birch, George Kistiakowsky, etc., could get together with you for lunch or dinner....' It was Bainbridge who exclaimed to Oppenheimer after seeing the Trinity test explosion: 'Now we are all sons of bitches'. Folds, light toning, very good.

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March 26, 2026 10:00 AM EDT
Elkton, MD, US

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