Second World War Harrie Massey

a german magnetic mine

soon after outbreak of war in september 1939, germans began naval mine campaign against britain. results devastating. nineteen ships totaling 59,027 tons sunk mines in october, , 27 totaling 120,958 tons in november, along destroyer hms blanche. many more ships damaged, including cruiser hms belfast. nature of mines unknown, on 23 november 1939, bomb disposal team under lieutenant commander j. g. d. ouvry recovered intact aerial mine mudflat @ shoeburyness, , threat revealed magnetic mine.

in december 1939, massey joined group @ admiralty research laboratory in teddington led stephen butterworth. joined number of other physicists, including bates, buckingham, francis crick , john gunn. together, came series of countermeasures enable navy sweep mines. in hand, massey became deputy chief scientist scientific section of mine design department @ admiralty mining establishment in havant in 1941. time, job create mines german ones. massey brought team him. while bates worked on packaging protect mine when dropped aircraft, buckingham , gunn calculated theoretical effectiveness, , crick designed circuitry. mine codenamed mx, in service, , group turned attention developing acoustic or pressure mines. on retirement of a. b. wood in 1943, massey became chief scientist @ havant.

after august 1943 quebec agreement merged british , american atomic bomb projects, mark oliphant persuaded admiralty release massey work on manhattan project. in november 1943, massey set out oliphant radiation laboratory @ university of california in berkeley in b-24 liberator bomber. radiation laboratory s part develop electromagnetic isotope separation process. massey in charge of theoretical group, included american david bohm , australian eric burhop. studied characteristics of electric discharges in magnetic fields, today known bohm diffusion, , studied ionization of uranium compounds used feed in electromagnetic uranium enrichment process such uranium tetrachloride (ucl4) , uranium hexafluoride (uf6). oliphant returned britain in march 1945, , replaced head of british mission in berkeley massey. wartime papers produced group collected , published in characteristics of electrical discharges in magnetic fields (1949).