Business: THE MEN AND THE BOMB

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No Work for Congress. Repeatedly, industry did the wildly improbable. For example, G.E. built instruments to detect leaks and tell how fast, and in what quantity, gas was going through the pipes, by merely attaching an instrument to the outside. Time & again, companies were asked to design a machine according to a "mathematical formula which they did not fully understand." Out of this amazing gadgetry have already come scores of new products, or processes, which have nothing to do with atomic power, such as new ways to dehydrate foodstuffs.

Most of the businessmen did not even know what they were working on. This bothered them only when they thought that the project, whatever it was, might fail. Du Pont, still trying to live down the "merchant of death" tag, worried most of all. If the project flopped, they were aware of the countless investigations they would face for years to come. As General Groves said, his mind on the $2 billions spent: "If it works, Congress won't investigate it. If it doesn't work, Congress won't investigate anything else."