What was the Third Reich project Die Glocke?

Answer 1

The Nazi Bell was a plasma induction coil, designed to irridate compounds of Thorium and Beryllium to transmute Thorium and breed Uranium from it using a photo-chemical process.

Prior to WW2 Professor Walther Gerlach had experimented with the spin polarisation of atoms to generate plasma. In 1936 another scientist Dr Ronald Richter had experimented with electric arc furnaces smelting Lithium for U-boat batteries and discovered by injecting Deuterium into the plasma that he could create nuclear fusion. Richter's intention was to find a way to accurately measure temperatures within the furnace. he found that radiation caused by the interaction of deuterium and Lithium could be measured from the radiation produced.

This led to further experiments in 1941 with bombardment of Lithium and Deuterium in a Van der Graff accelerator in 1941.

The Nazi Bell expanded on these two insights by spinning Mercury in a powerful magnetic field to cause a plasma which excited Beryllium to release Neutrons into Thorium at the core of the machine.

Gerlach began the project in January 1942 for the Nazi Atomic bomb project under contract from Heereswaffenamt Versuchsanstalt No.10 (Army Ordanance Dept Laboratory No.10). In June 1942 a contract was let to to AEG to provide electrical power with the highest priority possible. The AEG contract was codenamed Charite Anlage. Gerlach's project to transmute Thorium was originally called Projekt Thor.

The project to build the bell device, codenamed Die Glocke was inspired from Freiderich Schiller's poem Song of the Bell about the forging of a great bell from very pure metal. The poem had mystical overtones of racial purity for it's nazi inventors.

The Bell was built at Neumakt (Sroda Slaska) just east of Breslau (modern Wroclaw) and at Lubiaz in Poland. Thor was disguised as a company called Wekstatten dr Ferstenau (Furstenstein Castle) in joint partnership with AEG, Bosch and Seimens which all contributed various aspects of their expertise. The Centrifuge was built bt BAMAG at Dessau.

On 1 November 1943 the Bell device was installed in an underground complex beneath an airfield next to Breslau. The following November in fear of soviet advances it was shifted to a complex beneath Furstenstein Castle.

In December 1944 it was again shifted to Wenceslas Mine near the village of Ludwidsdorf (Ludwikowicze) and finally evacuated by aircraft on or about 17-18 April 1945.

The Bell's first operation was in May 1944 when five of the seven strong team of scientists died from what appears to have been radiation sickness. A second operation in July 1944 by scientists, this time with protective clothing also resulted in deaths.

Other projects concerned with the Nazi Bell were Kronos (Saturn) for the applied science aspect and Laternentreager ( [satan's] Lamp Holder) to do with medical experimentation. There is some indication from a Polish scientist who survived work on the project at Furstenstein Castle, that astronauts were being trained for a manned V-2 rocket program there too. This has also given rise to extraordinary conjecture that the Bell project had some exotic anti-gravity application, yet the evidence simply suggests a device for the production of Uranium.

Sources:

Bernstein, Jeremy. Hitler's Uranium Club, The Secret recordings at Farm Hall.

Dr Paul J Hahn, Dr Ronald Richter, Der Auftakt der Fusionforschungs

Witkowski, Igor. The Truth About the Wunderwaffe

Deichmann, Ute & Dunlap, Thomas. Biologists Under Hitler

Farrell, Joseph. The SS Brotherhood of the Bell: The Nazis' Incredible Secret Technology

Farrell, Joseph. Giza Death Star Deployed

[1] Various references to unexplained photochemistry process occur in transcripts of recordings at Farm Hall 6-7 August 1945 and 14 August 1945 from gerlach, Diebner and Harteck.