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

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" (turned out to be 400 million Troy Ounces) https://phys.org/news/2010-01-silver-crucial-wwii.html https://phys.org/news/2010-01-silver-crucial-wwii.html