Making of the Atomic Bomb
Page 120
nuclear chain reaction experiments of, 280–81, 288, 291, 298–301, 333–34, 394–97, 399
nuclear fission and, 269–70, 273
pile studies and, 395–97, 399, 428–30, 433–40
Trinity and, 652–53, 655, 677
Anderson, Sir John, 512–13, 527–28, 538, 624
Anschluss (1938), 235, 237, 241–42
Anscombe, G. E. M., 698
anti-Semitism, 177, 235
in France, 179–80
in Germany, 17–18, 25–26, 116, 168–70, 174, 182, 183–85, 188, 192, 194, 249, 445, 475, 630
of Hitler, 174–76, 181, 184, 475, 482
in Hungary, 106–7, 109, 111–12, 185
in Italy, 240–42, 249
in literature, 17–18, 181–84
Oppenheimer and, 445
in Russia, 178–79, 180–81, 183
Antonov, Alexei E., 691
Applied Radiochemistry (Hahn), 352
Archies, 702–3
Ardenne, Baron Manfred von, 370–71
area bombing, precision bombing vs., 469–71, 476, 586, 591, 650
Arendt, Hannah, 173–74, 183–84, 243, 732–33
argon gas, 43
Aristotle, 29, 55
Arkiv für Elektrotechnik, 145
armor penetration, theory of, 415, 544
Arms, H. S., 340
arms race, 325
Bohr and, 528–38, 621, 624, 637
Conant’s argument for, 406–7
Lawrence and, 643–64
secrecy as risking, 534–35
Soviet Union and, 527–31, 534, 536–38
Szilard on, 635–36, 637
United States and, 535–36, 637
Army Air Forces, U.S., 554, 583
Army Corps of Engineers, U.S., 412, 424, 451, 486
Army Institute of Pathology, U.S., 734
Army Medical Corps, U.S., 733
Arneson, R. Gordon, 634, 644
Arnold, Henry H. (Hap), 583–84, 587, 591, 641, 650
atomic warfare and, 736
LeMay and, 597, 599, 687
Truman and, 745
Arnold, William A., 263
Arsenic and Old Lace (Kesselring), 566
artillery shells, 101
Asano family, 712, 726
Asano Sentei Park, 726–27
Ashworth, Frederick L., 739–40
Asquith, Herbert, 89
Association for Scientific Collaboration, 292
Aston, Francis W., 231, 260, 314
isotopes identified by, 84, 138–39, 340
mass-spectrograph and, 139–41, 215–16, 285, 487
Rutherford and, 138, 141
on sub-atomic energy, 140–41
Thompson and, 138–40
Atkinson, Robert, 370
atomic bomb:
assembly mechanism of, 324, 362
autocatalytic, 464, 466
as barbarous weapon, 698, 746
complementarity of, 525, 528, 534, 538, 562, 572, 643
delivery and ballistics of, 478, 480–81, 582–86
design of, 415–20, 422, 447–49, 460–64, 466, 480, 540, 578, 689
destructive potential of, 315, 323, 324–25, 369, 377, 386–87, 405, 420–21, 508–11, 561, 563, 576, 643, 647
detonation and, 462–64, 466–67, 478–80, 540, 541–42, 544–45, 561, 631
efficiency as problem of, 461–62
engineering for, 382–83, 476
firebombings compared to, 648
gun, see Little Boy
humanitarian concerns and, 639–40, 647–49
implosion, see Fat Man
international control of, 562, 572, 624, 637, 644–47
moral implications of, 335–36
ordnance work on, 466–68, 476–81
political implications of, 500, 508–9, 523, 525–38, 561–62, 572, 620–21, 624–26, 628–31, 633–38, 641–44, 649–50
release mechanism for, 582
scientists’ opposition to, 312, 452–53, 697, 749–50
secrecy of, 279–82, 290, 293–95, 345, 350
Target Committee for, 626–28, 630–33, 638–39
see also specific individuals and topics
atomic energy, 24
Bohr on, 227–28
on industrial scale, 27–28, 38, 239
radioactive decay and, 43–44
Szilard on, 25, 27–28, 213–14, 223, 268
“Atomic energy from U238” (Turner), 346–47
atomic number, 83
atomic structure, Bohr’s explanation of, 114–15, 128–33
atomic theory, 30–31
atomic transformation, Rutherford and, 27–28, 38
atomic weight, 139–40, 154
atoms:
artificial transmutation of, 137–38, 153
binding energy of, 140–41
dissection of, 42
electromagnetism and, 30
as mechanical, 29–30
models of, 40–41, 50–51, 62, 66, 69–72, 75–77, 83–85, 113–14, 116–17, 128–29, 139
quantum principles applied to, 71, 75, 78, 83–84, 113–17, 124, 127–29, 131–33
second law of thermodynamics and, 30–31
stationary states in, 71–72, 76
X-ray spectra of, 81–85
see also specific parts of atoms
B-29 Superfortress, 478, 480–81, 554, 631, 679–80
Arnold’s commitment to, 587
background and description of, 584–85, 591, 626, 705
bombing raids flown by, 588–91, 593–94, 595–600, 612, 640, 649, 745
modifications of, 680–81
practice bombing runs of, 585–86, 589–90, 667, 699
reconnaissance missions of, 588
Bacher, Robert F.:
implosion studies and, 549
Los Alamos and, 454, 460, 549, 652
Oppenheimer and, 549
Trinity and, 659, 660, 662
Bagge, Erich, 311
Bahr-Bergius, Eva von, 250, 257
Bahr-Bergius, Niklas von, 257
Bainbridge, Kenneth, 362, 365
background of, 652
Fermi and, 664–65
Trinity and, 652–54, 657, 659, 664–67, 671–72, 675, 687
Baldwin, A. H., 97
Balfour, Arthur, 88–90
Balfour Declaration, 90
Balmer, Johann, 73–74
Balmer series, 73–75, 117–18
Baratol, 577
Barbarossa, Operation, 367–68
Bard, Ralph A., 628, 630
barium, isotopes of, 252–55, 257–58, 260–62
Bartky, Walter, 636
Baruch, Bernard, 307
Bataan Death March, 475
Battle of Britain, 341–43, 470
bazooka, 479
Beams, Jesse, 146, 316
Becker, Herbert, 159, 161
Becquerel, Henri, radioactivity discovered by, 41–42
Beer Hall Putsch (1923), 175
Bell, Daniel, 490
Benedetti-Pichler, Anton A., 409
Berlin, 17–19, 682–83
Berlin, Isaiah, 87
Berlin, University of, 14, 16–17, 20, 112, 118, 170, 173, 188, 191, 376
Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, 168
Berliner Tageblatt, 170
Berlin Physical Society, 70
beryllium, 578–80
radiation from, 159–64, 215–16, 238
Berzelius, Jöns J., 283
Beser, Jacob, 704, 711, 740
Best, Karl R. W., 482
beta decay, theory of, 208–9, 230–32, 444
beta radiation, 42–43, 208–9, 230–32
betatron, 574
Bethe, Hans, 165
atomic bomb design and, 415, 417–20
background of, 188–89, 197, 415–16
Bohr and, 572
Fat Man’s initiator and, 579–80
Fermi and, 206, 219–20, 568
Geiger and, 188, 189
o
n heavy-water piles, 523–24
implosion experiments and, 542, 543, 545–46, 575
Los Alamos and, 453, 460, 464, 479, 538–40, 542–43, 545–46, 568–70
mountain climbing enjoyed by, 568
Neumann and, 575
on neutron capture, 226–27
Oppenheimer and, 415–16, 418, 420, 443–44, 447–48, 449, 453, 479, 511–12, 539–40, 546, 570, 572, 676
ordnance and, 467
Target Committee and, 630–31, 643
Teller and, 374, 415–19, 453, 524, 538–40, 543, 545–46
thermonuclear reactions and, 150, 370, 415, 418–19
Trinity and, 656, 663, 668, 670–71, 673, 676
Ulam and, 543
Bethe, Rose Ewald, 416–17
Beveridge, Sir William, 192–93
Bhagavad-Gita, 614, 662–63, 676
biology, 26, 55
bismuth, as pile coolant, 411
Blackett, Patrick M. S., 191, 318–19, 329–30, 470
Black Rain (Ibuse), 711
Blitzkrieg, 342–43, 402
Bloch, Felix, 416
blockades, 103
blockbuster program, 589–90, 591
Blumenfeld, Kurt, 173–74
Bock, Frederick, 739
Bock’s Car, 739–40
Boeing, 584–85
Bohr, Aage, 384–85, 481, 484–85, 523
on father’s meetings with Churchill, 528–30
on father’s meetings with Roosevelt, 532, 536–37
Bohr, Christian (grandfather), 54–57, 60, 62–64, 75
Bohr, Christian (grandson), 226
Bohr, Ellen Adler, 55–58, 63
Bohr, Erik, 262, 264–65
Bohr, Harald, 54, 55–58, 63–67, 69, 84, 86, 483
Bohr, Margrethe Nørland, 64, 65, 69, 83, 86, 115, 129, 269, 273, 482–83
Bohr, Niels, 52, 166, 191–92, 200, 236, 294
Sir John Anderson and, 527–28, 538
anxieties of, 58, 59–62, 77
appearance of, 53–54, 64, 264–65
arms race and, 528–38, 621, 624, 637
on atomic energy, 227–28
atomic model of, 69–72, 75–77, 78, 83–84, 113–14
atomic structure explained by, 114–15, 128–33
awards and honors of, 63, 70, 114, 115, 141, 226
Bethe and, 572
Chadwick and, 481, 485
Churchill and, 525, 527–31, 537–38
on complementarity, 131–32, 243, 525, 528, 534, 538, 572, 643
Compton and, 364
Conant and, 538, 562
education of, 60–64
Einstein and, 54, 84, 115, 132–33, 170, 173
electron theory studied by, 63–64, 67–69, 73–76, 83–85, 113–14, 116–17, 128–29
escape of, 484–85
favorite novel of, 58–60
Fermi and, 243–44, 265, 289n, 568
Frankfurter and, 525–27, 531–32, 536–38, 562
Frisch and, 54, 114, 152, 190, 194, 225, 261–62, 264–66, 270, 612
Gamow and, 198, 269–70
Groves and, 523
Hahn and, 248
Heisenberg and, 115–16, 129–31, 383–86, 513, 523–24
heritage and childhood of, 54–57, 76
Hevesy and, 67, 69, 72, 81, 84–85, 110, 115, 225–26, 329
on Hitler, 524, 532
hobbies enjoyed by, 568
imagination of, 56
international control of atomic bomb and, 644–46
Klein and, 54, 57–58, 131
Lindemann and, 484, 529–30, 538
at Los Alamos, 523–25, 532, 568
George Marshall and, 535
Moseley and, 82–85
Nazis’ attempted arrest of, 482–83
on neutron capture, 227, 286–87
nuclear fission and, 264–71, 273, 284–88, 297, 311, 319–20, 323, 347, 384–85, 432
nuclear model of, 227–28, 232, 258, 282, 284, 287
Oppenheimer and, 114, 125, 127, 226, 229–30, 385, 484–85, 524–25, 532, 534, 537, 572–73, 644–45, 651
Pauli and, 57, 116–17, 152
Placzek and, 282–84, 287
political implications of atomic bomb and, 525–38, 561–62, 572, 620–21, 624, 633–34, 643
on racism, 243
radioactivity studied by, 67–69
refugee rescue missions of, 193, 226, 329, 483–84
religious conflicts of, 57, 58
Roosevelt and, 525–28, 531–32, 534–38, 561–62, 620
Rosenfeld and, 58–59, 61–62, 76–77, 264–65, 267, 282, 284–86, 289n
Rutherford and, 53, 66–69, 71, 75–77, 81, 86, 136, 139, 229–30
Scandinavian invasion and, 328–29
Schrödinger and, 128–29, 131
Segrè and, 114, 132
Snow on, 53–54, 57, 125, 529
Sommerfeld and, 113–14, 115
speaking manner of, 53–54, 57
Stimson and, 651
surface-tension value experiments of, 62–63, 228
Teller and, 500
J. J. Thomson and, 64–66
United Nations and, 535
uranium and thorium compared by, 284–87, 322
on U235, 285–89, 294, 297, 311, 319–20, 322, 500
Wheeler and, 264–65, 311, 319, 323
Wood and, 526, 528, 538
writing difficulty of, 57–58
Bohus’ Fäste, 256
bomber stream, 471, 475
Boot, H. A. H., 319
Booth, Eugene T., gaseous diffusion isotope separation experiments of, 298, 332–33, 368, 380–81, 492
Borah, William, 322
Bormann, Martin, 402
Born, Max, 116–17, 194, 206, 339, 344
Einstein and, 132, 170, 173
emigration of, 192
Oppenheimer and, 126, 127
Borneo, 699
Bothe, Walther, 402, 607
beryllium radiation and, 159, 161
carbon’s neutron absorption cross section measured by, 344–45
Segrè and, 159–60
Bradbury, Norris E.:
Trinity and, 657–58, 660–61, 663–64, 674
Bradley, Omar, 608
Brasch, Arno, 238–39
Breit, Gregory, 270, 380n, 383, 410
Breslau University, 95
Bretscher, Egon, 522
Bridgman, Percy, 123–24
Briggs, Lyman J., 314–17, 331–32, 334, 338, 359–68, 372–73, 387, 504
Brines, Russell, 597
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 26, 83–84, 138, 157
British Bomber Command, 469–72, 593
British Chemical Society, 319, 322
British Chiefs of Staff, 471
Brode, Bernice, Los Alamos and, 565–66, 568
Brode, Robert, 565, 630
Brownian motion, 19
Browning, William J., 101
Bruno, Giordano, 205
Bucher, George, 650
Budapest, 104–5, 108–10
Budapest, University of, 14, 109, 112
Bukharin, Nikolai, 199
Bulge, Battle of the (1944), 601
Bund, Der (Szilard), 21–23
Bundy, Harvey H., 620, 651
Interim Committee and, 629, 630, 642
Bundy, McGeorge, 620
Bundy, William P., 620
Bureau of Mines laboratory, U.S., 478–79
Bush, Vannevar, 290, 358, 538, 652
atomic bomb project administration and, 378–79, 423–24, 426–28, 449, 477
Conant and, 561–63
Einstein criticized by, 635–36
Groves and, 426–27, 477
Hopkins and, 337–38
Interim Committee and, 628, 630, 633–34, 644–46
international control of atomic bomb and, 644–46
Lawrence’s conflict with, 361–62, 373, 378, 387
military aspects of nuclear fission and, 359–60, 361�
��63, 366–67, 369, 376–79, 383, 386–89, 406
NDRC and, 336–38
NRL research and, 551
Oppenheimer and, 663
OSRD and, 365–66, 369, 377, 605
political implications of atomic bomb and, 561–62, 620–21, 625, 633–34
Roosevelt and, 337–38, 365, 377–79, 387–88, 405–6, 412, 551, 605
status of atomic bomb project and, 421, 561
Szilard and, 413, 505–6, 508–9
Trinity and, 661, 667–68, 675
Byrnes, James F.:
background of, 618–19
Hull and, 684–86
Interim Committee and, 629–30, 633–35, 643, 645–48, 650–51
international control of atomic bomb and, 646
Japanese surrender terms and, 686, 689, 692, 742–43
political implications of atomic bomb and, 634–35, 637–38, 643, 645, 650
Potsdam Conference and, 682–83, 689–90
Roosevelt and, 618–20, 646
Stalin and, 646, 690, 692
Stimson and, 682–83, 686–87, 742
surprise atomic attack and, 647–48
Szilard and, 636–38, 649
Trinity and, 686–87
Truman and, 618–20, 625–26, 628–29, 636, 651, 682, 686–87, 689–90, 742
use of atomic bomb supported by, 698
Cahn, Albert, 636
California, University of, at Berkeley, 127, 143–48, 451, 489
California Institute of Technology, 32, 127, 185–86
calutrons, see racetracks
Campbell, Sir Ronald, 526
carbon, neutron absorption cross section of, 344–46, 379, 395
Carnegie Institution, 336, 426, 507
Atomic Physics Observatory of, 271–72
Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, 270–73, 289–90, 316, 334–35, 432, 477n
Caron, Robert, 704, 707, 711
Carpenter, Walter S., 649
carrier chemistry, 603
Casablanca Conference (1943), 471, 520–21
Catherine II, Empress of Russia, 178
cathode rays, 38–40, 47
Cavendish Laboratory, at Cambridge University, 23, 30, 36, 37–39, 64–65, 83, 123–24, 134, 153–57, 159–61, 164, 198, 216, 350
cavity magnetron, 319, 321, 351
Cecil, Robert, 31
centrifuge plants, 405
Cerenkov radiation, 604
Chadwick, Aileen Stewart-Brown, 158
Chadwick, James, 216, 351, 355–56
background and personal life of, 155–56, 158, 160
Bohr and, 481, 485
Frisch and, 155, 345, 346, 356, 522
Geiger and, 156
at Los Alamos, 546
MAUD Committee and, 329–31, 340–41
Meitner and, 159, 233
neutron research of, 23, 153–58, 160–67, 578, 668
Oliphant and, 155, 165, 600–601
Rutherford and, 36, 50, 124, 135, 138, 153–58, 162, 164
Trinity and, 668
Chalmers, T. A., 215, 238
Chamberlain, Neville, 244–46, 320, 338