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Essential Architecture- Chicago
South and West Site of the First Self-Sustaining Controlled Nuclear Chain Reaction |
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architect |
Sculptor: Henry Moore |
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location |
5600-block of South Ellis Ave. |
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date |
Event took place on December 2, 1942; Sculpture erected 1967 |
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style |
Gothick Picturesque |
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construction |
Brick |
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type |
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After years of experiments, physicist Enrico Fermi and a team of
scientists working at the University of Chicago became convinced that if
a sufficient quantity of uranium could be brought together under proper
conditions, a self-sustaining reaction would occur. At 3:25 p.m. on
December 2, 1942, in makeshift laboratories constructed in an abandoned
handball court under the grandstands of the university's Stagg Field
Stadium, the final experiment was initiated. A 28-minute nuclear chain
reaction was started, controlled, and stopped. The atomic age had begun.
Stagg Field was demolished in the late 1960s and, on the 25th
anniversary of the nuclear reaction, a 12-foot bronze sculpture,
entitled "Nuclear Energy," was dedicated on the site. |
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links |
With special thanks to the City of
Chicago website,
www.egov.cityofchicago.org , for much of the info on this page.
Photos copyright City of Chicago. |
| www.essential-architecture.com | |