Word: pile
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...worth $700,000,000-and customers all over the world were clamoring for still higher production. Despite a lack of sheet steel (a shortage caused by U.S. and Canadian steel strikes), auto plants managed to build 178,000 cars and trucks, 3% above the average prewar production. And the pile of domestic and foreign orders was higher than ever...
...physicists knew that they were in dangerous, unknown territory. So above the pile was stationed a "liquid-control squad" to douse mutinous neutrons with cadmium-salt solution...
...Pull it to 13 feet, George," commanded Fermi. Physicist George Weil drew the final control rod part way out of the pile. Faster clicked the counters. He drew it out another foot; then another six inches...
...counters were clicking furiously. The physicists watched fascinated as the curve climbed steadily upward. Then, Wham! With a clang, the automatic control rod (which had been set for too low a neutron count) slammed back into the pile. "I'm hungry," said Fermi calmly. "Let's go to lunch." The other rods were inserted, the pile quieted down...
Neutrons Away. At 2 o'clock the physicists gathered again in the squash court. One by one, on Fermi's orders, the control rods were withdrawn, the counters clicked faster. The pile was alive with neutrons now; the giant was straining his bonds. But it was not quite a chain reaction. The neutron curve moved up, leveled...