On March 23, 1954, Walter Zinn held a farewell lunch at his laboratory for Alfonso Tammaro, who had been Zinn’s local Atomic Energy Commission manager in Chicago. My impression is that there had many tussles been Zinn, the scientist, and Tammaro, an engineer, but that there was also plenty of respect and amity. I found this letter to Alfonso:
Dear Al, I have made just a few of these paper weights. I think history will show that event commemorated by the paper weight will be counted as the beginning of industrial atomic power. In any case, I think it is one of the most important things that has been done by the Laboratory in its existence so far. May I again wish you the best of everything in your new job. Yours truly.
Zinn, Walter H. 1954. Zinn to various, Mar. 17, 1954. “Reading File, March 17, 1954,” Box 98, Laboratory Director’s Reading File, 1949-1957, RG 326. NARA-GL, Chicago, Illinois.
Zinn, Walter H. 1954. Zinn to Tammaro, Mar. 23, 1954. “Reading File, March 23, 1954,” Box 98, Laboratory Director’s Reading File, 1949-1957, RG 326. NARA-GL, Chicago, Illinois.
What was this “paper weight”? Is this a private joke between the two or did Zinn really make a memento of, say, his famous EBR-I four-light-bulb moment? If the latter, such a memento would be indeed wonderful. Sadly, I think we’ll never know: I’ve seen nothing more about this.