'HELPED ON BOMB?' An article in the Aug. 7, 1945, Lawrence Daily Journal-World.

In the days following the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the then-Lawrence Daily Journal-World published accounts of the bomb’s power and the scientific breakthrough it represented. While combing the archives for clips used with today’s front-page story, “Hiroshima 70 years after the bomb: Local emotions on weapon of mass destruction still run high,” our digital editor Nick Gerik also found this headline, from Aug. 7:

“HELPED ON BOMB? Many K. U. Men Away on Secret War Work May Have Aided”

Ever the research university, KU apparently was abuzz with talk about who among the ranks may have had a role in developing the bomb. “None of the persons called away on secret work for the government has talked, but release by Washington of some of the places where research and production were carried forward indicates the probable connection of a number of K. U. people,” the article says.

The article names an assistant professor of physics who’d been on leave from KU for two years, a chemist who’d been at Chicago University for the past year and several former instructors and graduates working at a plant in Oak Ridge Tennessee. And friends of some Sunflower Ordnance Works employees mysteriously sent away on other government work had heard they were engaged in “something big” and “entirely secret,” the article says.

'HELPED ON BOMB?' An article in the Aug. 7, 1945, Lawrence Daily Journal-World.

This old news clip — speculative as it was — was right about that physics professor and his group-mates.

“Henry H. Barschall, a nuclear physicist who carried out early experiments with neutrons, helped develop the atomic bomb in World War II,” reads a 1997 New York Times news obituary on Barschall. Barschall spent most of his career at the University of Wisconsin, but prior, “In World War II, Dr. Barschall joined the team at Los Alamos, N.M., that developed the atomic bomb. On July 16, 1945, he helped monitor the shock wave from the first nuclear test, near White Sands.”

In a fascinating autobiography by Barschall (titled “Reminiscences” and shared online here via a teacher at Wisconsin), he talks about his time at KU and how he came to work on “U.S. Engineer Project ‘Y.'” Barschall’s challenges getting to Los Alamos included expediting the process of becoming a U.S. citizen (he was German), getting security clearance and — apparently — freeing himself from KU.

“The worst problem was the University of Kansas, which opposed my departure violently, including threats to use the Local Draft Board. At least the university finally promoted me from Instructor to Assistant Professor,” Barschall said in the document. “…I could not imagine the Secretary of War writing a letter on my behalf, but apparently such a letter was indeed sent, and on September 27 (1943) I was told I could leave.”

An excerpt from physicist H.H. Barschall's Reminiscences, in which he talks about his path from Kansas University to Los Alamos.

After the war, KU tried to get Barschall back, offering him a promotion to associate professor and a raise, he wrote. But Barschall had other offers. “My experiences at Kansas in the months before my departure had left an unpleasant memory. The lack of experimental facilities and the lack of a research tradition were other disincentives.” Ultimately — spurred in part by the promise that the larger of the accelerators used at Los Alamos would be shipped back to Wisconsin — Barschall took an assistant professorship there and was soon granted tenure.

An excerpt from physicist H.H. Barschall's Reminiscences, discussing his post-World War II plans.

“I was, however, able to help Kansas with their staffing problem by arranging for my first Wisconsin Ph.D., Worth Seagondollar, to join the faculty of the Kansas physics department as an assistant professor, the rank of instructor that I had at Kansas for two years having fallen into disuse,” Barschall wrote.

The Journal-World article also said KU students Joseph Kennedy and Ernest Klema were working with Barschall.

Also correct.

Kennedy, who earned his master’s degree at KU, went on to head the chemistry and metallurgy division at Los Alamos, and co-discovered plutonium, according to his biography on the Atomic Heritage Foundation’s website.

Klema, a student of Barschall’s whom he discusses in his autobiography, completed his master’s degree at KU and went to Princeton University to get a doctorate when his project was transferred to Los Alamos. Klema had a career in academia and went on to become a dean at Tufts University, according to Tufts.

These are only a few of the scientists with KU ties who worked on the Manhattan Project — some of whom KU attracted to its faculty after the war, even as Barschall was heading elsewhere. They include Barschall’s student Seagondollar, Clark Eugene Bricker and William Argersinger. If your Internet spelunking turns up other names and links, go ahead and share in the comments below.

• Journal-World digital editor Nick Gerik contributed to this post.