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Lot 71
Berg, Morris "Moe" & Paul Scherrer. Berg (1902-1972) was an American Major League Baseball catcher who also served as a spy for the United States. A graduate of Princeton, he spoke a dozen languages and was often said to be the smartest man to ever play baseball. Paul Scherrer (1890-1969) was a Swiss physicist, specializing in nuclear physics. Historic diagrams, mathematical equations, and notes by American spy Moe Berg and Swiss physicist Paul Scherrer describing an atomic chain reaction which occurred less than eight months later in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 14 x 9 in., recto/verso, Zurich, December 26, 1944. Notes by Moe Berg (code name "Remus") in red pencil, by Dr. Paul Scherrer (code name "Flute"), director of physics at the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, in regular pencil. Expert restoration to fraying on cover page at top and right edges. Fine condition.
The article "Scholar, Lawyer, Catcher, Spy" by Nicholas Dawidoff in "Sports Illustrated," March 23, 1992, says, in part: " … The day after Christmas [1944], at Flute’s laboratory in Zurich, Flute spent hours diagramming atomic chain reactions. Then Remus took the pencil, sketched a diamond and proceeded to explain the American sport of baseball…. Flute didn’t keep that sketch. Remus took it and, perhaps, sent it off to Washington with Flute’s scribbled formulas. Such was Remus's obligation, and Flute understood that anything he told Remus might well end up on President Roosevelt’s desk in the White House…."
"Wild Bill" Donovan, the father of the OSS, initially recruited Berg because of his linguistic skills. Berg was given a variety of assignments in Italy, Switzerland and Sweden, but his most significant work was in atomic counterintelligence. Donovan and Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, wanted confirmation that Hitler’s scientists were nowhere near completion of an atomic bomb. Berg immersed himself in nuclear physics, and in 1944, attended a lecture in Zurich by the leading German atomic scientist, Werner Heisenberg, with orders to kidnap or assassinate Heisenberg if Berg could determine that a German atomic bomb project was impending. A recently declassified memo written in 1946 by Colonel Howard Dix to recommend Berg for the Medal of Freedom says that Berg’s attendance at the meeting ‘yielded the most important information snatched from under the cloak of secrecy which the Germans maintained on this subject. This and other information sent back by Mr. Berg and obtained by him while under continual risk of exposure and retaliatory action, was used in guiding, the U.S. operation in this field and in determining … the pressures to be placed upon U.S. scientists for rapid progress towards ultimate completion of the Manhattan Project.’" In 1994, Dawidoff’s biography of Berg was published by Pantheon Books, "The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg."
These are some of the diagrams the two agents drew, with notes by Berg. In the upper portion of the cover page, Moe Berg has written in red pencil "Zurich 26/XII/44. Flute’s own description & diagrams of Azusa & possibilities at his Physical Institution December 26, 1944. – my notes in red Flutes in black." Berg then circled what he had written. Project Azusa was the code name of the secret mission assigned to Berg by the OSS.
On the first page, numbered in the upper right by Berg with a circled "1" in red, headed by Berg "(explanation of content of U)." The symbol for Uranium is U. Its atomic number is 92 and atomic weight is 238.02891. Scherrer has circled in regular pencil "+ 92," underlined "238" and written "~100%." Beneath this, he’s circled another "+92" and penciled "235" and "1/140." Scherrer has drawn a rectangle around this line and written a third line of a circled "+92," "234" and "1/10000." Uranium 239 first decays into Neptunium 239, further decaying into Plutonium 239. Scheerer has drawn a diagram in the center of the page, labeling "U 239" and drawing a box around the name "Nier." Alfred O. C. Nier was the first to separate Uranium 235 from Uranium 238. He joined other scientists in proving that U 235 was a source of nuclear energy when uranium is bombarded with slow neutrons. Berg has identified "Nier who followed up on Hahn & Strassman – importance of U 235." In the lower third of the page, Scherrer has drawn and labeled diagrams and, at the lower edge, has written "U 235 + n = Sr + Xe + 2-3 n," circling the final "n" and drawing an arrow to it labeled "chain reaction." Berg has also written "chain reaction." "Sr" is the symbol for Strontium and "Xe" for Xenon. Scherrer has also written "Ba" for Barium and "Kr" for Krypton.
The next five pages have drawings and mathematical equations ostensibly diagramming atomic chain reactions with "Mass-Spectrograph," "fission," "Thorium," and "rendement" (French for "production, yield") in Scherrer’s hand. Berg has written "Thorium" above Scherrer’s "Thorium." Above Scherrer’s drawing of what resembles a coil, Berg has written "explanation of role of Cadmium layers of alternation U235 & cadmium." Berg has labeled one of Scherrer’s diagrams "aerodynamics another subject" and identified two of Scherrer’s words as "Prandle" and "Exterman of Geneva." Thorium, written by both Berg and Scherrer, is a source of nuclear power.
Less than eight months after the physicist Scherrer and the spy Berg wrote and explained in detail atomic chain reactions on these pages, a U-235 bomb destroyed Hiroshima and a Plutonium bomb destroyed Nagasaki, in effect, ending World War II.
Estimated Value $6,000 - 8,000.
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