Y12 Calutron Operators

 Calutron operators at their panels, in the Y-12 plant at Oak Ridge, TN during World War II. The calutrons were used to refine uranium ore into fissile material. During the Manhattan Project effort to construct an atomic explosive, workers toiled in secrecy, with no idea to what end their labors were directed. Gladys Owens, the woman seated in the foreground, did not realize what she had been doing until seeing this photo in a public tour of the facility fifty years later. Circa 1943 to 45

Wikimedia Commons | Ed Westcott / American Museum of Science and Energy,