When this paper appeared on April 22 it had a major impact on research elsewhere, because it showed that a chain reaction might indeed be a possibility. It impelled Professor G.P. Thompson of Imperial College to draw the British government’s attention to the possibility of an atomic bomb, and to the importance of denying to Germany the uranium held by the Union Minière Company in Belgium. Responsibility for the uranium problem was assigned to the Air Ministry’s Committee on the Scientific Survey of Air Defence.
