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Polonium in the Playhouse: The Manhattan Project's Secret Chemistry Work in Dayton, OhioAt the height of the race to build an atomic bomb, an indoor tennis court in one of the Midwest's most affluent residential neighborhoods became a secret Manhattan Project laboratory. Polonium in the Playhouse: The Manhattan Project's Secret Chemistry Work in Dayton, Ohio presents the intriguing story of how this most unlikely site in Dayton, Ohio, became one of the most classified portions of the Manhattan Project. Seized by the War Department in
At the height of the race to build an atomic bomb, an indoor tennis court in one of the Midwest's most affluent residential neighborhoods became a secret Manhattan Project laboratory. Polonium in the Playhouse: The Manhattan Project's Secret Chemistry Work in Dayton, Ohio presents the intriguing story of how this most unlikely site in Dayton, Ohio, became one of the most classified portions of the Manhattan Project. Seized by the War Department in 1944 for the bomb project, the Runnymede Playhouse was transformed into a polonium processing facility, providing a critical radioactive ingredient for the bomb initiator-the mechanism that triggered a chain reaction. With the help of a Soviet spy working undercover at the site, it was also key to the Soviet Union's atomic bomb program. The work was directed by industrial chemist Charles Allen Thomas who had been chosen by J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves to coordinate Manhattan Project chemistry and metallurgy. As one of the nation's first science administrators, Thomas was responsible for choreographing the plutonium work at Los Alamos and the Project's key laboratories. The elegant glass-roofed building belonged to his wife's family. Weaving Manhattan Project history with the life and work of the scientist, industrial leader and singing-showman Thomas, Polonium in the Playhouse offers a fascinating look at the vast and complicated program that changed world history and introduces the men and women who raced against time to build the initiator for the bomb.Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Ohio State University Press
Published: 05/21/2018
ISBN: 9780814254042
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.60d
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4.8 ★★★★★
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 5
"She was dead when I got there," Mom casually said
Format: Paperback
I've faithfully followed Living the Line's Smudge manga releases up to this. Actually I had this one preordered for ages but Amazon never shipped it to me and I only noticed it was in stock by chance. I had to cancel and reorder it. What the heck, Amazon?
Anyhow, it's definitely a horror story but also a species of superhero story, or at least a person-with-superpowers story, without the encumbrances of lore, heavy character- or world-building, a continuing narrative in a shared universe, or anything else. There's really nothing you could call a plot. Stripped down and even rough as it is, it's utterly engrossing, surreal reading for me.
A lot of my manga reading is horror but I've also been enjoying superhero manga like this or, for example, Hikari-Man FAR more than anything from the Big Two because of the greater freedom the Japanese works exhibit in how they conceptualize power(s) and heroism.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Awesome graphic
Format: Kindle
This graphic tale is engaging, thought providing. Leads you into taking another look into the events of the past as you grew up in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Cool blend of a crazy bend of history, horror, and secret organizations of control.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2024
★★★★★ 5
The Truth
Format: Kindle
This is a stomach churning mind bender and the art is gorgeous. I can’t recommend it highly enough. Well done!
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Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2025
★★★★★ 4
A good beginning
Format: Kindle
This is a difficult book to review because just as it really gets going, it ends. But I like the direction it is headed. The writing is solid and the artwork is gripping. The point it appears to want to make is that conspiracy theories can be dangerous. There's truth to that. But there's far too much fact in many of them to simply chalk it all up to an overactive imagination. So that danger exists in this story to want to think conspiracy theory is all nonsense (and this story seems to place the blame for all conspiracy theories entirely on the "right wing" which is shortsighted). But this quibble aside, the book is compelling. Where it will lead is up in the air. This could be a great beginning to an excellent story, or it could fall apart under its own gravity. The future will decide.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2021
★★★★★ 5
Not your typical tale…
Format: Kindle
Great writing, rather mesmerizing in its way. The mixture of deep state conspiracy, a smattering of actual truth, and mythical freely pull you in.
The artwork is a bit over the top at times; I see the intention behind this, but it harms rather than helps the story at some points. This abstract/high concept art crap could have seriously been dialed back and then better assisted the narrative.
Not to say that this isn’t worth the read… I gave it 5 Stars because the tale itself is well told and very riveting.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2023