Word: weil
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Herbert first came into the Yard through the famous gate inscribed "Enter To Grow In Wisdom" and, ambitious Freshman that he was, determined to grow Harvard wise. He quickly learned the primary lesson that there are smooth and rough, weil-considered and ill-considered ways of saying things. It was rough and offensive not to qualify adjectives. To say, "This book is good," is too direct, too hard on the sensibilities. How much better to say, "This book is quite good," "rather good," or "sort of good." Herbert also discovered the devastating effect of the words "indeed," "thus...
...that morning of Dec. 2, 1942, Physicist George Weil stood ready to start withdrawing the final control...
which was marked to show how many feet and inches of the rod remained within the pile. "Pull it to 13 feet, George," Fermi said calmly, watching the meters set up to measure the neutron emission inside the pile. As Weil withdrew the rod, the meters clicked faster and faster. Fermi did some calculating with the little slide rule he always carried with him. "This is not it," he said. The rate of radiation leveled off as neutron emission from uranium and neutron absorption by cadmium came into equilibrium...
...Bottle of Chianti. Several times that morning, Fermi told Weil to pull the control rod out a little farther, six inches or a foot. Each time the radiation increased, only to level off again-still too much control rod. After lunch, Fermi ordered the rod withdrawn another foot. Again the radiation leveled off. Then another six inches. Still not enough. "Pull it out another foot," Fermi called. It was precisely...
...meters clicked dizzily. "This is going to do it," said Fermi, working his slide rule. Recalls Weil: "I had to watch Fermi every second, waiting for orders. His face was motionless. His eyes darted from one dial to another. His expression was so calm it was hard. But suddenly his whole face broke into a broad smile." "The reaction is self-sustaining." Fermi announced. "The curve is exponential." Instead of leveling off, the rate of radiation was continuing to accelerate-a chain reaction was under way inside the pile...