I read somewhere that the Manhattan Project was at one point consuming 1/7 of ALL electricity generated in USA. And this is when all factories (and many newly built ones) were running at full capacity. Truly mind boggling.
The other mind-boggling info about the project is that they needed copper for the Y-12 electromagnetic separation magnets. But because there was a war on, they couldn't get it. So they went to the US Treasury and borrowed 14,700 tons of silver.
Daniel Bell, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, supposedly said:
"Young man, you may think of silver in tons, but the Treasury will always think of silver in Troy Ounces"
Daniel Bell, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, supposedly said:
"Young man, you may think of silver in tons, but the Treasury will always think of silver in Troy Ounces"
(turned out to be 400 million Troy Ounces)
https://phys.org/news/2010-01-silver-crucial-wwii.html