The Manhattan Project: The Destroyer of Worlds

[@Restilia_ch]

Yamaguchi Tsutomu was one of the many people in Hiroshima the day it got bombed. He survived, and then went home... To Nagasaki. Just in time to get nuked again. And, again, he lived. He died in 2010. So if you think you're having a bad week, just remind yourself that you haven't been nuked once, let alone twice.

[@_Abjuranax_]

There was also an incident in Chad during the 70's, where a nuclear round was detonated, and Rhodesian troops walked into the area. My friend who was in charge of those troops, passed away last year.

[@vortex6818]

@John Barber why would you want one?? If he said he was his friend then he is.But if he lied,nothing's gonna happen anyway

[@megaprojects9649]

Yep, I made a video about this a while back on one of my other channels :)

[@shaider1982]

Lived to be 90 plus. I think he lived longer than any of the crew of Enola Gay.

[@millardwashington6216]

I heard he was in the hospital telling his unbelieving boss what had happened when he got confirmation !!!

[@destinvoulgaris5465]

So looking forward to Oppenheimer this week. Was stoked to see Simon made a video on The Manhattan Project

[@stevenclarke5606]

I tried to see the film last week and it was sold out, going to try again

[@keiththorpe9571]

"On the Planet Earth, man had always considered himself more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much; the wheel, New York, wars, and so on - Whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water, having a good time. Conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were more intelligent than Man...for precisely the same reasons." So true, Doug...So true.

[@deadfreightwest5956]

So long and thanks for all the fish!

[@Wppk765]

This message has been approved by Slartibartfast

[@andersjjensen]

This is one of those points where you feel like posting "the finger raising guy" meme :P

[@atish365]

@Paul Hogsten Fuck off you dumb fuck

[@deadfreightwest5956]

@@Wppk765 - "My name? It's not important. Ever been to Norway?"

[@TheAshleyYoyo]

“Sir, they have a city destroying bomb” ... “oh shit”. This might be the best quote I could have heard 😂

[@deamon002]

Fun fact: when they were setting up the Y-12 plant in Oak Ridge for electromagnetic separation they needed a lot of copper wire for the electromagnets, only to discover that, it being wartime, copper was in very short supply. Until someone realized that, hey, silver works almost as well, and we've got all that bullion lying around.... Which led to the Under Secretary of the Treasury asking a question that has probably never been asked before or since: "Six thousand tons of silver? How much is that in troy ounces?" In the end, 13,300 metric tons of silver was used, worth over a billion dollars in 1940s money. The last of it wasn't returned until 1970; they had been so careful with it that less than one pound had been lost.

[@user-hr8pz6lh5w]

Silver works better than copper Though silver wire is roughly 7 percent more conductive than a copper wire of the same length, silver is a significantly rarer metal than copper. ... Silver wire, however, is generally reserved for more sensitive systems and specialty electronics where high conductivity over a small distance is prioritized.

[@deamon002]

@@user-hr8pz6lh5w Not on a per-mass basis. Yes, silver is a better conductor (although it's more like 5.7 percent, 15.87 nΩ·m vs. 16.78 nΩ·m), meaning you can make a wire of the same resistance 5.7% longer, which gets you more loops, which means a higher magnetic flux. But silver is also about 17% more dense than copper, so you can make less wire out of one kg of silver. In the case of Y-12 I mentioned, they were substituting silver for copper at a ratio of 11/10.

[@user-hr8pz6lh5w]

Even more fun. Is that more time has passed since we went to the moon than the interval between the first commercial airplane flight and the first human space flight.

[@UkDave3856]

Top factoid! 👍👍👍

[@user-hr8pz6lh5w]

First Commercial flight 47 years, 5 months, 1 week, 6 days before Yuri Gagarin *and* the Apollo 17 mission dec 17 1972 until now.

[@hullinstruments]

I live near Oak Ridge. Born and raised in Tennessee. My grandfather was in the war and then worked with Oak Ridge after. Not as a scientist but a machinist. I guess that’s what sparked my interest in nuclear history, and I began buying geiger counters and collecting radioactive sources when I was about 20. It’s amazing the kind of stuff you can find.

[@ripwolfe]

You can visit Trinity on only two days in a year: April 1st and Oct 1st. I visited the site several years ago and was -- excuse the phrasing -- blown away by the history that was present there. Seeing the container that held the bomb was humbling. Last year, I visited Hiroshima and was equally touched. Truly, the Manhattan Project was a massively significant part of not just US history, but in world history.

[@WanderingWriter]

why only those two days?

[@xXChronoTriggerXx13]

I've been to Hiroshima and it is quite possibly the most humbling place to visit in the World. Going to all the memorials and museums, you really learn how the general Japanese people were just caught totally off guard and the terrible suffering that ensued. The story that sticks with me the most was seeing a picture of a nuclear shadow of someone who was sitting on the bank steps waiting for the bank to open at 8am, but it never did.

[@ripwolfe]

@@WanderingWriter It's on an active military base and there's still a lot of (not life-threatening) radiation around. I presume they limit it to ensure both the safety of the site and the visitors alike.

[@douglasthomas8484]

@@WanderingWriter I believe it is still an active millitary test range.

[@douglasthomas8484]

If you mean the giant steel container (Nicked named "Jumbo") it was supposed to contain the gadget, to contain the plutonium in case a nuclear reaction did not occur. The plutonium was that precious. So it was only designed to contain the chemical explosives. By the time the test occured they were confident enough that it would work they didn't use the container. But it was too thick to cut up easily, so they just left it. Hence why it has survived.

[@thomasbolin7447]

Simon, this is probably one of your best videos ever. It's controversial due to the choices made to build the bomb, and at the same time it had to be a difficult choice to use it. You spoke to both views and I appreciate that as an American. It's sometimes hard to believe that humanity can do what they did in the first 45 years of the last century. I think about an idea that the English astrophysicist Brian Cox said that we have a duty to preserve life as we are the only life in this Galaxy. I, as a veteran, hope we find a better way.

[@ArchFundy]

I believe there was an incredibly important side effect of those two bombs that is totally overlooked, even today. If the world had not seen the effects of these two first gen bombs on a city, then nuclear war between America and USSR would have been much more likely.

[@slordmo2263]

Yep, think you're correct there. As far as I know, the scientists of the time even petitioned to 'demonstrate' the effects to the Japanese beforehand, which was shotdown. Later after the war, the 1st demo bombs were exploded at Bikini Atol in front of 40thousand ppl....I'm not sure it was 'that' impressive. (My father was a young seaman who witnessed this, wasn't that impressed, actually).... So actually using them on an enemy showed we would 'use the big stick' not just feint with it...

[@jericho86]

The threat of nuclear war and its total devastation, quite possibly makes the atomic bomb one of the greatest life saving inventions of the 20th century.

[@thomasdemay9805]

@@jericho86 without it there is no doubt USA and USSR would have gone hot at some point

[@gorishokgo5825]

Ussr just don't get a f'uck about people. Soviets killed over 40 mln people without any war , just concentration camps and starvation. If stalin had a plane or rocket to nuke usa - 1000% guarantee

[@tulip2342]

...it's not like we didn't know what they did tho it was simply because now the USSR was aware that the us would actually use them

[@Whisper_292]

The thought of nuclear war doesn't make me lose sleep, but that huge closeup of Robert Oppenheimer just might.

[@Sir_Glass]

Liberty ships would be a good idea for a video.

[@tomast9034]

first ever fully arc welded ships and all the troubles that come with new tech. half of them fell apart sitting empty in the docks...they didnt knew what is going on.

[@deadfreightwest5956]

One member of the German high command (Speer?) remarked, upon hearing that we could build a Liberty ship in a week, that they had lost the war. They'd never be able to sink so many ships. I think it was at a Kaiser shipyard that they were able to assemble one in a single day. It was all pre-fab, though. More of a stunt than practical. But Ford's Willow Run bomber plant could produce a bomber every hour, the record being one every 48 minutes. Note: that was a plane ready to fly left the plant at that rate, the individual planes took days to build, but there were so many in production at once.

[@rik5095]

The channel ‘mustard’ has a very good video on libertyships!

[@joebaker4116]

@@rik5095 Was just thinking that. Love his work!

[@flashgordon3715]

@@deadfreightwest5956 And now I'm worried about countries with enough industrial power that can build a fleet of aircraft carriers in the time USA can build a torpedo

[@stewartmaddison8359]

Sir James Chadwick, CH, FRS (20 October 1891 - 24 July 1974) was a British physicist who was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery of the neutron in 1932. In 1941, he wrote the final draft of the MAUD Report, which inspired the U.S. government to begin serious atom bomb research efforts. He was the head of the British team that worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II. He was knighted in Britain in 1945 for his achievements in physics.

[@TruckDrivinGamer]

Handed the global power of destruction to Earth's most advanced species, dolphins. *Douglas Adams has entered the chat*

[@cragan1145]

Second-Most. The best-laid plans of Mice and all that...

[@megaprojects9649]

;D

[@Pete...NoNotThatOne]

C Ragan damn, you beat me to it.

[@lilbill6089]

Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!

[@alanmoss3603]

"So long and thanks for all the uranium...."

[@HeimirTomm]

"Now it can be told: The story of the Manhattan project" by General Leslie Groves is a fascinating read. It details the whole project from the point of the commanding general of the project and is more than worth the read.

[@maxtorque2277]

I'd recommend that anyone interested reads Richard Rhodes seminal work"The making of the Atomic Bomb". 838 pages of near forensic level investigation on the Manhattan project

[@jorgebunge]

Fantastic book. Dan Carlin has a couple of excellent podcasts about the bomb as well. The episodes are called The Destroyer of Worlds and Logical Insanity. Highly recommended.

[@deadfreightwest5956]

Great suggestion. Also, I'd like to recommend "Working on the Bomb, An Oral History of WWII Hanford" by S. L. Sanger. Having the recollections of those who worked there is a fascinating insight. The sheer scale of the construction project initially, then the operations of various facilities (as one person said of the reactors, "there was no operating manual") is breathtaking.

[@Chino56751]

It was either the nuke, or the amphibious assault, Simon. The latter would've been worse. It was a descisive action that ended everything

[@robthegardener9631]

I never understood why the Japanese couldn't have been offered some sort of cessation of hostilities agreement as the North Koreans were offered and accepted eight years later.

[@pzkpfw2310]

@@robthegardener9631 The Japanese wouldn’t have accepted anything like that. They viewed surrender as the worst possible thing one could do.

[@philipwebb960]

@@robthegardener9631 They were.

[@anotherjewishsharpnicholas9425]

People also ignore that the fire bombing of cities would have been far worse without the use of the nuke, and those caused more damage.

[@mndlessdrwer]

Yep. At that point in time, the Japanese public still believed that the emperor had divine providence and the war could be won even if they lost several battles. It was only a few high-level military officials who really knew how poor their chances actually were, but they were already far too deep into the conflict and could not pull back. The US made the decision for indiscriminate bombing with such immense destructive weapons as a means to overthrow the public's perception toward their leadership and provide the emperor with a justified opportunity to surrender. The choice to drop nuclear weapons on Japan, while certainly still a war crime by modern standards, was a masterclass in psychology and politics.

[@Trainfan1055Janathan]

I'd like to recommend Bell Rock Lighthouse, the first successful offshore lighthouse. It took four attempts to get right.

[@susanmaggiora4800]

Trainfan1055 I once saw a fascinating video on the Irish lighthouse systems from around 1880-1905 (very rough dates here). The engineering & plain muscle power behind them was really impressive.

[@ethan7353]

Not exactly mega but still an excellent story. Perhaps a geographics??

[@alexkriel3721]

@@ethan7353 I have learned more in all Whistler's comments than anything else thanks... Rabbit...

[@Pete...NoNotThatOne]

Asking Simon Whistler for directions on the street - “First you need to go 300 yards (274 metres) south, then turn 90 degrees left, until you see a sign 3feet (91.4 cm) high...”

[@wilyriley_]

and the temperature is 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) right now.

[@Dorcolac990]

Maybe do a video on Roman road/highway system. Truly a masterpiece of engineering.

[@tyharris9994]

And the Aqueducts. Many still standing.

[@tyharris9994]

@Peace I didnt know that. The Romans took a good idea then and implemented it very well. The North Africans may have conceived it but the Roman Empire was second to none on the scale of their civil engineering projects. I am sure that the tax structure and therefore the money to fund these generational projects was the key to that being possible.

[@tyharris9994]

@Peace You don't sound very peaceful Mr. Peace. I am an American and we certainly did nothing to erase your history. Islam is what is holding back North Africa. It's a barbaric political and societal belief system that is incompatible with human rights, personal liberty, secular governance, and modern civil progress. Its the most regressive force on the planet which is why you remain the world's armpit. Good luck with indoor plumbing and feeding your people. You'll need it. If you need us we will be landing on Mars.

[@horsedoconfb]

In the summer of 1945 my dad had just been released from the Brooklyn Naval Hospital having his face rebuilt after an encounter with a grenade in Italy. He was shipped to San Diego where he boarded a destroyer bound for Tokyo Bay. The mission: Sweep the mines out of the bay in preparation for the Japanese land invasion. Every man on that ship was told it was a suicide mission and they shouldn’t expect to return home. The atomic bombs fell while the ship was in route, and Japan surrendered prior to arrival. My dad lived to get back home and start a new life, and I am literally alive today because of the Manhattan Project and Truman’s decision.

[@Killyspudful]

Wow, another tragedy that we can lay at the feet of Oppenheimer and the others.

[@gdwnet]

How about the moon landings for a megaproject or even something like the building of the pyramids? An ancient megaproject could be interesting.

[@peten2956]

I second both of these ideas

[@ISpillSprite]

Definitely hope for these! And for the space shuttle!

[@davidhartenstine190]

Everyone know's the Pyramids were built by aliens!

[@jordenpenitch1532]

I don’t think the aliens will want to talk about it

[@RangerRiccardo]

@@davidhartenstine190 Unfortunately that has yet to be proven, but a very high possibility. There is no possible way we are the only ones out there. Most likely in this system, but not in this galaxy.

[@PhillyPhanVinny]

2 notes: 1. The idea that Robert Oppenheimer said "now I have become death the destroyer of worlds" came from himself years after the war. There are actually very detailed notes of how he reacted after the bomb went off including from Robert Oppenheimer's brother Frank. His brother Franks said that after that after the bomb went off the 2 brothers hugged and and Robert kept repeating happily "It worked! It worked!". 2. I don't know how something that saved hundreds of thousands to millions of lives can at all be consider "terrible". It is another post war thought that Japan was about to surrender prior to the 2 nuclear bombings of Japan. Yes, there were people in Japan even at the highest levels of government who wanted to surrender. But there was just as much if not far far more who wanted to continue the war. This is evidence by even after the 2nd bombing only half of the top Japanese government wanted to surrender and only the Emperor was able to break the tie. And then even after that the officers of Japan's military were so unwilling to surrender that they tried to launch a coup on the Japanese government to prevent the surrender that failed. People now also like to bring up the invasion of Manchuria as what made Japan surrender which is also false. Japan already knew no matter what that Manchuria and it's colonies were a loss. Japan's hope in continuing the war was to cause as many casualties as possible to get a negotiated peace in order to safe face which nobody in the Japanese government expected would include them keeping any of their colonies. In fact in the months prior to the Japanese surrender they had been trying everything possible to bring their troops from China, Manchuria and Korea back to Japan to defend the home land against the invasion by the Western allies that they knew was near. The final straw that convinced the Japanese government to agree to surrender (for those that did agree) according to them after the war was that America with the new nuclear bomb had the ability to wipe the Japanese population off the face of the Earth without even having to invade the island. And the only thing keeping the Japanese from surrendering earlier was the fact that they thought if the Western allies had to invade Japan they could cause so many casualties that they could get the Western allies to allow Japan to have a negotiated surrender.

[@perniciouspete4986]

The Russian invasion of Japanese territory had something to do with the surrender as well.

[@Cabreratonn]

I have stayed on the island of Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands my whole life, The island was used to assemble the two atom bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, on the northern part of the island of Tinian you could still drive on the runways that were used during the war the runway that Enola gay departed from , many history sites still remain. I really hope you all get to see it.

[@theelaffingman8776]

I love this series. Infographics, Geographics, and now Megaprojects....I love these videos! Keep them coming. There is so much to talk about in the world.

[@megaprojects9649]

Indeed :). Thank you.

[@6thwilbury2331]

Little-known fact: Klaus had a younger brother who was also a physicist. However, he stayed at home because when it came to the UK, Germany could not give two Fuchs. Thanks, I'll be here all week.

[@TheManFrayBentos]

Did he Fuchs off to the Antarctic?

[@paulomendoza5606]

I love the script's neutrality on the atom bomb and nuclear power

[@AA-vs9kh]

Definitely

[@davidlloyd3116]

I always find Simon’s videos highly informative , detailed and well researched, with a tinge of good old British humour too. Keep it up SW!

[@azteccroatia1496]

Of all your channels, this one is by far the most awesome. I like it 👏

[@toastytoast9800]

I like geographics most

[@timstiteler4817]

For me it's definitely business blaze but this is a close second. Simon keep up the good work I really appreciate having so much great content.

[@MarshFlyFightWin]

Do you think you could do a video on the Nevada-Class Battleships as both ships had interesting careers. One of which USS Nevada tried to escape Pearl Harbor, fought at D-Day , Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, and survived 2 atomic bombs. I would say that's a mega ship. Great work on theses videos, love them

[@dorothyrosenberg1301]

The massive construction necessary to build Y-12, X-10, & K-25 uranium enrichment plants in Oak Ridge, TN was incredible. And that doesn’t included constructing a city for 125,000 - complete with fencing & security stations. I was born in and grew up in this artificial city.

[@Michael75579]

There's also the fact that the vast majority of people working there had no idea what they were doing as the process was split into individual steps that could be done without any need for an overview of what was happening in total. I've read one person describing their job there as "I watch this gauge. When it reaches a certain value, I press this button"

[@sarahrosen4985]

Dorothy Rosenberg Wow. I would like to hear more. Your next channel, Simon...

[@theherrdark4834]

My Uncle has a sort of connection to this and the story I am to tell you will explain what I mean. Years ago when I was a kid, I wanted to stay with my Uncle Paul. My Uncle's full name was Paul Abner Dunkel and he was a veteran of WW2, you see he told me this story when we were watching something on TV I think he needed to say it. You see he was coming back home from the European theater on a troopship when over the loudspeaker came the announcement that the US has bombed Japan and Japan has surrendered the war was over, and he along with everyone else cheered. Sometime later he had gone to the movies and he was watching the newsreels where they showed after the bombings and this is what he said, "I wish I never would have cheered." That was the first time I think I ever saw him cry. He did not talk much about the war and when he did though it was like he was reliving it. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to have the few stories I got. WW2 was not a set of facts in a history book or text book, it was real and was named Us Army Corporal Paul A. Dunkel.

[@jonathandevries2828]

Old McDonald had a farm...and the US Military blew it the F*** up!!

[@coreytaylor447]

ei ei oh

[@jur4x]

Loui's father: Old Mc'Donald had a farm! Till government confiscated it :)

[@RangerRiccardo]

@@coreytaylor447 I love that you added that 😆

[@TheWhiteTrashPanda]

That's the most metal thing I've heard all week

[@RangerRiccardo]

@@TheWhiteTrashPanda so fucking metal!

[@pdannysan13]

3:17 'Everyone realized nazis having nukes is a bad idea.' Best Quote.

[@donmerz657]

Speaking of historical impact, how far back do you want to go? I am thinking The Pyramids? Or the Roman road system?

[@emmata98]

The Pyramids don't have that much historical impact

[@joheyjonsson2825]

I'm thinking the Republic of Venice.

[@frankfedison5203]

I'd like to see Hagia Sophia featured.

[@servant74]

Wheel?

[@emmata98]

@Atheos B. Sapien But they didn't have the historical influence like the ending of a world war

[@hirenrupchandani3577]

This video being Recommended to me on July 16 2023 is wild af. (Trinity Test was conducted on July 16 1945)

[@herrdrayer]

Although St. Louis is most known for the gateway arch and perhaps the Cardinals, the most famous mega project in the city is the 19th century Eads Bridge, the first bridge across the Mississippi anywhere, the first bridge to be built mostly of steel, of such high quality Andrew Carnegie grumbled loudly, and one of the first to use caissons to build the underwater piers. It continues to carry rail, vehicular, and foot traffic to this day, and has outlasted several newer bridges. Oh, and the chief engineer was a riverboat pilot.

[@Destructive166]

What about doing one on that seed vault they have buried under the permafrost in Norway?

[@megaprojects9649]

Will check it out. Svaldbard I think is the name. Will do some prelim research :)

[@reamick]

@@megaprojects9649 Yeah, Svalbard is the name of the island it's on, well north of the Arctic Circle.

[@silentdeath7847]

Would be nice to see a video about the Svalbard seed vault, I belive north korea is the only country to whitdraw seeds from it.

[@taranpreetkaur8303]

@@silentdeath7847 the seeds have been drawn from svalbard seed vault when the gene bank in Aleppo Syria was destroyed due to bombings

[@santaclause9306]

My goodness I keep find new channels that you put on, and they are all relevant and tasteful, I love that it is fact based, you don’t push a point of view, and it’s very entertaining.

[@millennialchicken]

''We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ''Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'' Words that then, as now, shall haunt humanity throughout history.

[@susanmaggiora4800]

Millennial Chicken I can’t imagine what went through their heads when they 1st saw the explosion. I’m sure at least a few of them thought that, perhaps in hindsight, it wasn’t the wisest of things to do.

[@littlewol2620]

@@susanmaggiora4800 no. scientists this curious are happy it works, and eager to "push the line" a bit further. some do think of moral implications, but i think propaganda and money takes over...furthermore, the push to use this technology as a weapon, NOT as a safe and useful purpose, like efficient, farly safe and low cost power, says it all....

[@susanmaggiora4800]

Little Wol Well,Oppenheimer certainly didn’t feel that way. I imagine 2 others gelt similarly, since I only said a FEW. And if you think nuclear power is ‘fairly’ safe, perhaps we could store the spent rods in your backyard?

[@bimblinghill]

@@susanmaggiora4800 Richard Feynman (who was a fairly junior scientist at the time) wrote about it in 'Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman?'. Seeing the test he was basically just pleased their project had worked, but after the bombings he became haunted by it, for some years beliving a global nuclear war to be inevitable.

[@puncheex2]

Well, if you mean "Words that then, in 1957..." In 1945, his brother Frank, also a physicist, said that they looked at each other and both said, "It worked!!" Oppenheimer was pretty sanguine about the bomb until Teller began pushing his Super so hard. By 1957 Robert had lost his security clearance and most of his influence in government circles. It stands to reason he was pretty depressed.

[@py8554]

‘Now I Am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds.’ Quoted by Oppenheimer from the Hindu sacred text the Bhagavad Gita.

[@Christopher-N]

The Manhattan Project was a major undertaking, facilities, power plants, and cities sprung up seemingly overnight amid a shroud of secrecy. Aside from the obvious destructive potential, the Manhattan Project had far reaching implications: products and technologies developed that we use today, from non-stick fluoropolymers to radioactive isotopes used to diagnose and cure cancers, to long-life batteries.

[@althaushexe4825]

We saw a film about Oppenheimer at school (back in the 60s). When he quoted the bhagavad gita (I have become death...) it made me cry and I have never forgotten it.

[@buckhorncortez]

Well...then you might like to know that In late 1940 or early 1941, Oppenheimer bought a new Cadillac which he and his wife nicknamed, “Bombsight.” Oppenheimer didn't believe the first reports of fission. However, once an experiment was performed at the Radiation Laboratory that showed fission, it took him less than 15 minutes to figure out where his original hypothesis and calculations for fission not working were wrong. A day later, Phillip Morrison (then a graduate student) walked in to Oppenheimer's office and found a crude drawing of an atomic bomb on his blackboard. Yep...Oppenheimer was all about philosophical musings about the bomb...

[@daguard411]

Of the many unusual aspects of the Manhattan Project, one of them is that a great number of the academic and engineering staff working on the project had received portions of their education in Germany. Also, the Enola Gay was on display at Chanute AFB for many years after WW2. Many questioned if it was the Enola Gay, or if the name had been painted on in homage, so Chanute AFB had the aircraft checked out and it was found, by my Dad, that the air frame serial number, and a few other serial numbers, matched they of the Enola Gay. My Dad was an instructor at Chanute and one of the incredible things of that base was that to maintain the displayed aircraft in near perfect condition many of them were used for basic education classes.

[@robertfarr9186]

Left out the contribution of Canada to the project. A site in Canada (chalk river) also help refine materials for the bomb. Up until they shut down tourism to the site (911 ) you could walk around and look inside the large (20 ft across) kettle they used.

[@bhuvaneshs.k638]

Love this channel... ✨ please do a video on CERN Large Hadron Collider , ITERs Tokamak and Travelling Wave Reactor by TerraPower funded by Bill Gates

[@megaprojects9649]

LHC coming very soon.

[@bhuvaneshs.k638]

@@megaprojects9649 Travelling Wave Reactor is a very interesting topic. It uses U-238 for fission. So we can skip enriching process. We can even use nuclear waste to produce energy. If once we fill the reactor with fuel, reaction will take 30-40 yrs to complete. It's a promising Technology. Please cover this in Ur channel.

[@kardakan]

17:02, Japan surrendered on September 2nd 1945 not December 2nd. The Japanese emperor announced the surrender on August 15th but it was signed on September 2nd.

[@megaprojects9649]

Apologies, my screw up. It was right in the script, and I read it wrong... Like an idiot.

[@deusexaethera]

My grandfather was stationed in Calcutta and his name was on the very long list of soldiers who would be flown to Japan in gliders to fight a ground war if necessary. It is extremely likely that I'm alive because Japan was nuked and the ground war never happened.

[@gorishokgo5825]

No mercy to the enemy, or you will be dead . Nukes is the triumph of weaponry

[@darylb5564]

My grandfather was in the Philippines. I remember him telling me when I was young that it was very likely that he wouldn’t have made it to the end of the war.

[@andyharrison7061]

I’m grateful that you are here, and that your grandfather was not required to fight a horrendous ground war in Japan, and also, I wonder how many Japanese people there might have been today that could say something similar had The Bomb not been dropped on civilian populations.

[@darylb5564]

@@andyharrison7061 without question there would have been far fewer…

[@XTrueXAlucardX]

My great grandfather was a prisoner of war on the river Kwai. Without sounding horrible, if the bomb wasn’t dropped, so many more pain and suffering would have continued…

[@peten2956]

Would love to see a video about dreadnoughts or battleships. Maybe the Bismark or Iowa class.

[@DougCaldwell]

In the 1960s my father and I were eating at restaurant when dad pointed to the man eating nearby. He was General Lesile R. Groves, military leader of the project. He was also in charge of building the Pentagon which got him noticed by the FDR administration and put in charge of Manhattan Project.

[@brianholmes4415]

The world was changed forever by the Manhattan Project. Excellent presentation! P.S. I'm diggin' the black globe on the bookshelf.....

[@MrArdytube]

One of the least known WWII mega projects was proximity fuses for artillery and anti aircraft shells. They did not have transistors, but figured out how to put a tube into something that was going to be fired out of a cannon. Apparently this project was the same level of secrecy as the manhattan project.... which gives an idea of how important it was considered to be.

[@andrewgnys6285]

The war has not gone in our favour. Love your video's Simon.

[@andysteam1905]

This is quite possibly the best video I have ever watched on youtube. Thanks Simon.

[@philhead03]

A video on the Grand Coulee Dam and the whole Columbia Basin Project would be really cool!

[@mrbfros454]

Thank you for maintaining such a balanced and impartial perspective on all the topics you cover. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate not being told how I should think, feel, or believe about things.

[@danieldevito6380]

Balance? Do you realize that Japanese diplomats were in Washington DC giving out "peace bracelets" while their countrymen were killing 2,403 Americans who had no idea that Japan was declaring war against them? Did you forget that during WW2, Japan was allied with Italy and Germany. Do I have to remind you who the leaders of Italy and Germany were during WW2?

[@businessjetguru1298]

Simon, you might consider a focused review of the Roman Empire. If we look at the rise of this empire, you would have massive construction, in every country the Romans invaded, much of which remains accessible, today. Militarily, almost all of our present-day military tactics owe their origin to the incredible Roman generals who were tasked with brining Europe, and North Africa, to heel. Whether discussing aqueducts, bath houses, temples, roads or any other enduring features, the expansion of the Roman Empire marked a pivotal period in world history, and a period that is readily re-visited, whether you live in Italy, France or any other territory the Romans occupied. Just a thought...

[@theslayer2360]

Who's here after watching Oppenheimer ✌

[@gaamesso8002]

Don’t know, not me.

[@joeystoney3678]

Nah. I come across a different Manhattan Project video multiple times a year

[@RaderizDorret]

Oppenheimer was rather poetic about how he felt about witnessing Trinity. Kenneth Bainbridge (the man in charge of the test itself) reportedly had simpler thoughts: "Now we ALL are sons of bitches."

[@bull010163]

War equals technological advancement always has.

[@deadfreightwest5956]

There was tremendous medical advances made during WW2. Sadly, some knowledge came from the horrific experiments of Dr Mengele, which are used by all divers and navies today.

[@TheKalaxis]

Necessity is the mother of invention

[@magnusgreel275]

@Luc Préfontaine sort of. That's oversimplifying it a bit. Necessity is what drives innovation, and in war time there is a very stark necessity. That said though, the same is true for the current pandemic, and other emergencies/needs throughout history. A lot of innovation is also derived from opportunity--e.g. the scientific advancement of organisations such as NASA and the CSIRO. To leave it at 'war = innovation' is technically correct, but it's a bit like saying 'Australia = desert'. It leaves out too much detail and dimension.

[@magnusgreel275]

@Luc Préfontaine except that we do deal with them all the time. I mean we don't stop them from happening, in the same way we don't stop wars from happening, but the amount of technological innovation stemming from crises response is astounding. There have been a lot of wars, but I don't know if there have been more wars than disasters, crises etc.

[@MortenKvale]

Hi Simon, I am now addicted to all your of your channels. Your videos make up about 90% of all entertainment I consume. Can not get enough. Thanks..

[@phelan5387]

If it wasn't Oppenhiemer, it would have been someone else.

[@RC-pj1pr]

11:37 Getting the GameCube safely out of there

[@jetsons101]

A fact that very few people know about the Manhattan project know is that the B-29 bomber cost more for R & D that of the Manhattan project. The B-29 was about 3 billion in 1940's dollars and the "project" was about 1.9 billion again in 1940's dollars. The B-29 was the most costly project of the war. It is said that use of the bombs saved lives on both sides as it shortened the war, the Japanese during the war would fight to the death. The war was shortened by a few years. Still odd that the plane cost more than the bombs. How about a long video on Isambard Kingdom Brunel or Sir Joseph Bazalgette..... Great work on your part.....

[@raymondj8768]

HOW ABOUT THE HINDENBURG BUILDING OF !!!?????????

[@ekc_sc.722]

I vote for this one too!

[@praetorian65]

What about the Central Ammunition Depot at Monkton Farleigh? Not as well known but interesting and quite "mega". It is a very large underground complex in Wiltshire (UK) that was built in the 1930s/40s to store ammunition, and was active during WW2.

[@jorgepeterbarton]

You can access one of the tunnels from a disused railway siding. Couple miles but obviosuly closed at the base end. The Box bunker its linked to, a nuclear bunker that was basically an undeground village is worth more note, but is connected to the complex as well as old mines and a train tunnel on GWR.

[@GlacerYT]

I think you misspelled Manhattan.

[@megaprojects9649]

Shit, thanks!!! Fixed the title, thumbnail fix coming soon :)

[@papahemmy8587]

@@megaprojects9649 lol

[@TNT_FPV]

=]

[@MrKen-wy5dk]

@@megaprojects9649 Well, you know, English can be a b***ch to master. American English, anyway.

[@GlacerYT]

@@megaprojects9649 Happy to help!

[@sergiomessina2037]

Have you ever considered that one major benefit of the Manhattan project is European (relative) peace since 1945? The fear of mutual destruction with the former USSR has deterred WWIII.

[@DebTheDevastator]

Did I just hear a Geographics about the Belgian Congo?

[@williamepps9519]

We need this!

[@MrSocialmenace]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/moXUZ3ueoNWqaNU Biographics on King Leopold the 2nd of Belgium.

[@--enyo--]

MrSocialmenace Thanks, I came to the comments to post it. XD

[@spaceman081447]

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." J. Robert Oppenheimer did not actually say that during the TRINITY test, although he might have thought it. What he said at the time was, "Well, the Gadget works."

[@buzaldrin8086]

The quote is also reported to have been, simply: "It worked."

[@b226tj]

I live just a bit up the road from one of the sites, it rhymes with Oakridge, the way I used to think it was spelled.

[@andrewledford3865]

I live IN oak ridge. Yes... We all glow at night and watch three eyed frogs...

[@thurin84]

20:39 ironically 2 bombs and the soviet invasion of manchuria wasnt enough to convince some of the ruling military clique to end the war. a group of influential colonels (no doubt secretly backed by equally influential generals) staged a palace coup to intercept hirohitos surrender speech with the intent of continuing the war.

[@Asomeuserlol]

Would the eradication of smallpox be a megaproject?

[@megaprojects9649]

Yes. I think it would :)

[@jonwatson654]

@@megaprojects9649 I've heard that medical science, predominantly through vaccination, has saved more lives than have been lost in all human conflict. Could this be true?

[@MrPobanz]

@@jonwatson654 Should be hard to prove because people not getting killed by disease is hard to count. Certainly one could compare death rates in certain time scales which could at least offer a rough estimation. That aside, it could be true and I wouldn't even be surprised, just thinking about the fact that a single pandemic (the spanish flu) killed more people in a single year than the second largest conflict in human history (WW1) killed in 4 years. Disease generally kills far far more people than conflicts, so preventing those could amass a giant amount of saved lives even in just a century.

[@ianji]

The quote in context - 'We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Bhagavad-Gita: Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.'

[@KSparks80]

I always think of the poor dude that survived the blast in Hiroshima, then struggled to get back home. To Nagasaki! Just in time to get blasted again. He survived that, too, and I think he passed in 2010. Talk about a rough couple of days. Damn!

[@JoseMartinez-yr2wq]

This intro gave me a flash back of the crazy hair conspiracy guy. But with Simon super imposed saying "I am not saying it was a mega project, but it was a mega project!".

[@ShawnPitman]

I feel like when you're mentioning the atrocities of the nuclear attacks on Japan, you also need to mention that advanced warning was given in both cases. Japan chose both to ignore the warning, and flout the call for evacuating the cities. Either they didn't believe or they didn't care.

[@LSSYLondon]

Just as the US had warning of Pearl Harbor and ignored it...

[@Skyne_E_Vader]

Who cares. They were nuked. The war ended. Done. Screw 'em

[@chachachannel3996]

@@LSSYLondon well technically that warning wasn't official, as in it was not done through any official mention by one nation(in this case Japan) to another(in this case U.S.A.) compared to USA's explicit warning to Japan with the use of leaflets so comparing the is a tad unfair. Allegedly, they got the information that Japan might attack Pearl Harbor but since that was an information they got from spying and not an official declaration of Japan, they cannot exactly go for an offensive lest they will be seen as the first to trigger the conflict.

[@va3kbc]

The true story of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki kzbin.info/www/bejne/r52wk6mcaNihlck

[@gaylonfuller3312]

Awesome job. My grandpa saw the blast from his Ranch near Alamogordo NM. I work for the company that is cleaning up the waste that was generated.

[@tomb7088]

"Everyone realized Nazi's having nuclear weapons is a bad idea." Understatement of the 20th century.

[@natureandphysics403]

Even Hitler said such weapons would make war unthinkable and unbearable.

[@alexshih3442]

My father survived the atomic bomb at Nagasaki. After the bomb, he joined the medical rescue team headed by Dr. Nagai to treat the injured people. He described the injury which were so different than the traditional bombing injury. He lived to 2007 at the age of 83. But the experience of that fateful day, August, 9th, 1945 and aftermath remained with him for his whole life.

[@jrbatek9427]

I would like to see more about liquified natural gas (LNG) projects - these are massive and expensive. Also, microchip fabrication centers (fabs). Again, big but make tiny things.

[@nexpro6118]

I love how, Simon uses common sense and facts which unfortunately is not very common in today's America and makes those people pissed off because they are so entitled and never want to be wrong.

[@zippymk13]

Video suggestions: Saturn V5 Rocket, the Bathyscaphe Trieste, The Voyager Space Probes, The Hubble Space Telescope, The Hoover Dam, The Trans Siberia Railway, The Japanese Bullet Train, The Eiffel Tower, San Francisco or Humber Suspension Bridge.

[@JellyFishPuddin]

Transcontinental railroad please

[@megaprojects9649]

Coming soon.

[@JellyFishPuddin]

[@JoLew37]

Great video as always. Here's a suggestions... the Berkut oil drilling platform (largest), Freedom Ship (planned not built), and Knock Nevis (longest oil tanker and movable man-made object).

[@IamSnowbird]

I believe it was estimated that a million more lives would have been lost if the bombs hadn't been dropped. My father fought in the European theater. If the fighting in Asia would have continued he probably would have been redeployed there. I am glad the war ended when it did. I put the blame for a second bombing squarely on the shoulder of the Emperor of Japan. He should have surrendered after the first.

[@prich0382]

Which is pretty much true, the fighting would of went on, Japan never wanted to surrender, would of kept fighting till the last man, so the Nuclear bombing was bad but completely necessary

[@_Abjuranax_]

Tojo wanted the war to continue, but after the second blast, the Emperor said that Japan "Must endure the unendurable."

[@motoxpert]

Historian outside of USA might have a different take on that. Still today large parts of the scientific community think that Japan's war efforts were hopeless even before the bombs fell and they were purely a power move directed to the USSR and the world. Thought that the bombs saved more lives in the end is still up to debate with good arguments on both sides. That American's are taught the latter is understandable considering that no moral human could live with the fact that the death of hundreds of thousands innocents was pointless.

[@KSparks80]

@@motoxpert I think the Japanese military fought for many, many years doing things to their enemies that "no moral human could live with". (They weren't the most civil fighters at that party!) The USA just got it all over with in 2 shots. I don't see where there's any "debate" required. Is the debate for a death limit? As in "OK. The scientific community here has determined that 345,652 men would have died in Japan, therefore the nukes were A-OK. From 1 to 345,651, these men would have had to die in conventional type warfare in Japan. Nukes would be morally reprehensible if used". I'd say the debate should end at 1. One soldier got to live his full life instead of being shot/blown up/executed in Japan. Pretty simple. If our fearful leaders used this as their "debate" after WWII, I think we'd have had far fewer wars, and much quicker wars if needed. I'd call 'em a success. Just my opinion, folks.

[@motoxpert]

It is without a doubt that the Japanese Empire commited equally atrocious crimes but this can never be used to excuse other war crimes. We will probably never find out the truth but my main point is that the bombs didn't HAVE to fall on innocents, that military targets probably could have been possible and that the people responsible for that catastrophe should have been sentenced in Den Haag, so justice could have been served. Two wrongs just don't make it right.

[@markrobinowitz8473]

"The Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing." -- General Dwight D. Eisenhower "It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was taught not to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying woman and children." - Admiral William D. Leahy Former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff "I am absolutely convinced that had we said they could keep the emperor, together with the threat of an atomic bomb, they would have accepted, and we would never have had to drop the bomb." - John McCloy

[@nickdanger3802]

They did keep the Emperor.

[@JessRenee91481]

It might be aprocphyal but the bombs were named after FDR (Little Boy) and Churchill (Fat Man). The book Enola Gay focuses on the dropping the bomb in narrative form. It is quite good, and the authors interviewed both sides to write the book.

[@Zachnsocal3]

You guys should do a video (videos?) on the World's Fairs. Specifically the ones in Paris (1889) and Chicago (1893). Both incredible showcases of human invention and engineering!!

[@maxdachef3795]

Apollo missions would be a awesome mini series

[@richardgarrett5322]

Of interest is that the uranium "gun type" system was never tested. It was assumed to work as it did on Hiroshima. The Trinity test was of plutonium "implosion" type as used on Nagasaki. A one-night bombing of Tokyo a bit earlier had produced as many deaths as either nuclear bomb. It would seem that the loss of life wasn't really the issue, but that it was suddenly too easy and involved less risk to Americans.

[@markcasey8750]

My mom worked as a secretary/shipping clerk at the North Ridge complex during WWII. When I was a teenager, she happened to mention that she worked on it. Neither she or anyone she worked with had any idea what they were a part of. She said, "I typed 'U-235' lots of times but I never knew what it meant. I thought it was just a serial number for some type of machine part." Totally blew my mind. 😲

[@markcasey8750]

Sorry Oak Ridge.

[@buzaldrin8086]

@@markcasey8750 You can edit/correct your comment after posting it, you know?

[@TheGillhicks]

Suggestion, “The St Lawerence Sea Way”

[@donaldasayers]

The project to build the delivery aircraft, the B29 bomber cost considerably more than the Manhattan project to make the bomb it dropped. There's a Megaproject video right there.

[@crazeelazee7524]

Fun fact: the B-29 program cost 3 billion dollars.

[@prich0382]

Back then or in today's money?

[@stevedownes5439]

@@prich0382 back then, that's roughly 44 billion today

[@SUNRISE-ADVENTURES]

Just as much as the bomb program..

[@waynesimpson2074]

@@stevedownes5439 Phew, and I thought B2s were expensive?

[@Michaela1942]

My cousin was in Los Alamos working on the Manhattan Project. He was one who know what was happening (not a mole working in the dark). To his death, he believe strongly that they did the right thing and that it saved American lives. I could never agree with hm, but I understood why he would think the way he did.

[@Akmundra1]

Yea, every year on my Birthday I’m like, oh yeah Nagasaki literally got Nuked today in history...

[@LennoxMatt1]

The Rwandan genocide started on mine

[@250txc]

@@LennoxMatt1 Only a 1 in 365 chance .. No biggie.

[@250txc]

Only a 1 in 365 chance .. No biggie.

[@QqJcrsStbt]

My memory is that the Norden bomb sight project came in at $1 billion, atomic bomb at $2 billion but the B29 totalled $3 billion. Round numbers. It took all three to to nuke the targets.

[@jonnybillett5020]

Do an episode on the raising of Chicago! Not its construction, I'm talking about when they jacked up the whole city by six feet to keep it out of the lake!

[@laurendoe168]

I honestly believe that if we had not dropped the bombs, the world would not have been shocked by destruction that as you yourself had said was unimaginable. I firmly believe that this shocked the world and as a result prevented an all out nuclear war in the 1960's. Because of this demonstration, the entire world came to the same conclusion you did, "... that we should all strive to never go anywhere near again."

[@gaylonfuller3312]

My Grandpa saw the blast and mushroom cloud. My family grew up with the Trinity site in our back yard.