Y12 Calutron Operators, c. 1943, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Operators at their calutron control panels. The Y12 project was the WW II code name for the part of the Manhattan Project involved with separating U235 from U238 using electromagnetic isotope separation. A calutron is a mass spectrometer. In a mass spectrometer, a vaporized sample is bombarded with high energy electrons, which cause the sample components to become positively charged ions. They are then accelerated and subsequently deflected by magnetic fields, ultimately colliding with a plate and producing a measurable electric current. Since the ions of the different isotopes have the same electric charge but different masses, the heavier isotopes are bent less by the magnetic field, causing the beam of particles to separate out into several beams by mass, striking the plate at different locations.
Way cool picture; I’m not remotely smart enough to understand the whys, only the whu-huhs.
(via)
