 Oliphant then met with the Uranium Committee . Samuel K. Allison , a new member of the Committee , was a talented experimental physicist and a protégé of Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago . Oliphant " came to a meeting " , Allison recalls , " and said ' bomb ' in no uncertain terms . He told us we must concentrate every effort on the bomb , and said we had no right to work on power plants or anything but the bomb . The bomb would cost 25 million dollars , he said , and Britain did not have the money or the manpower , so it was up to us . " Allison was surprised that Briggs had kept the committee in the dark . Oliphant visited his friend Ernest Lawrence , and also spoke with James Conant and Enrico Fermi . He not only managed to convince the Americans that an atomic bomb was feasible , but also inspired Lawrence to convert his 37 @-@ inch ( 94 cm ) cyclotron into a giant mass spectrometer for isotope separation , a technique Oliphant had pioneered in 1934 . Leo Szilard later wrote , " if Congress knew the true history of the atomic energy project , I have no doubt but that it would create a special medal to be given to meddling foreigners for distinguished services , and that Dr Oliphant would be the first to receive one . " 
