Development Of The Atom Bomb Essay, Research Paper

Development of: The Atom Bomb & # 8220 ; In the 1930s, some scientists theorized that pelting an atom & # 8217 ; s nucleus with a neutron from another atom would do the first atom to divide in two. The splitting atom would let go of another neutron, which would so strike a adjacent atom, doing it to divide, and so on. It was thought that each splitting atom would let go of a bantam flicker of energy. In a atomic concatenation reaction, millions of atoms would divide in less than a millionth of a 2nd, thereby giving Forth an amazing explosion of power. This procedure of deducing energy through a concatenation reaction is called atomic fission. & # 8221 ; ( Killingray 5 ) . One of the taking scientists interested in atomic fission was Leo Szilard. The talented physicist was born in Hungary and educated at German universities. While sing London in 1933, Szilard was struck with a monumental thought: & # 8220 ; What if he could happen an component that would breathe two neutrons each clip it was bombarded by one neutron? He subsequently wrote, & # 8220 ; Such an component could surly prolong a atomic concatenation reaction. & # 8221 ; & # 8221 ; ( Stein 8 ) . While Szilard worked to progress his thought, Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party took over Germany. Under Hitler & # 8217 ; s control, Germany started constructing armored combat vehicles, military aeroplanes, and bombs. At the clip, German scientists led the universe in atomic natural philosophies. Szilard feared that the Nazis could develop an atomic bomb and go powerful plenty to govern the universe. Feeling that war would interrupt out in Europe, Szilard moved to the United States in 1938. Shortly after he moved, German scientists shocked the universe by denoting that they had split uranium atoms by pelting them with neutrons. For the first clip in history, the atom had been smashed through man-made agencies. One twenty-four hours in July 1939, Szilard and Edward Teller, another Magyar born physicist who studied in Germany, went to the place of Albert Einstein. They told Einstein that they believed Germany would shortly be able to do an atom bomb. Szilard and Teller felt that that a scientist every bit celebrated as Einstein could acquire the attending of the United States authorities. Einstein instantly wrote a missive to President Roosevelt, warning him of this new found menace. His missive did non make the president for two months. Finally in October 1939 Roosevelt read the missive. The president granted Szilard and Teller a little sum of money, to get down experiments in atomic fission. The two scientists enlisted the assistance of Italian born physicist Enrico Fermi, victor of the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics. & # 8220 ; Since much of America & # 8217 ; s early atomic research had been conducted at New York & # 8217 ; s Columbia University, the federal authorities assigned the Manhattan District of the Army Corps of Engineers to carry on the initial research and production installations for the undertaking. Hence, the & # 8220 ; Manhattan Project & # 8221 ; became the codification name for the atomic-bomb development plan. But the undertaking besides encompassed research work being carried out at the University of California at Berkley and the University of Chicago. & # 8221 ; ( Jones 40 ) . By 1942, the Manhattan Project moved its central offices to Chicago. They set up a research lab under the bleachers of a bowl one time used by the University

of Chicago’s football squad. On December 2, 1942 the Manhattan Project scientists assembled, to try the world’s foremost controlled atomic concatenation reaction. Under the football stands, technicians had built a atomic reactor. The exterior of the construction consisted of 45 thousand black lead bricks. Graphite, has the belongings to debar speeding neutrons. Inside the reactor were 19 thousand balls of U. The reaction was controlled by neutron absorbing rods that were inserted in holes in the immense black lead “house” . Fermi was in charge of this vitally of import and potentially unsafe trial. “With a nod, Fermi ordered a technician to slowly draw out one of the rods, thereby leting the reaction to begin.” ( Stein 15 ) . They had with them a particular machine that counted neutron barrages. The more the rod was pulled out the faster and louder the machine got. Once it was announced that the “pile” had gone critical, the rod was rapidly pushed back in before the reactor blew up. The reaction proved that a atomic bomb could be made. The success at Chicago prompted President Roosevelt to give top precedence to the creative activity of an atomic bomb. The focal point of the Manhattan Project shifted from bomb research to bomb production. More than $ 2 billion was eventually spent on the attempt. The Manhattan Project squad employed the country’s brightest mathematicians and its most extremely trained proficient people. This included 12 Nobel Prize victors. The Manhattan Project was the biggest scientific project in American history. Uranium had to be processed. Elephantine machinery was designed and built on a piece by piece footing. Work on the undertaking was conducted in 37 installings spread over 13 different provinces. Two new towns, Hanford, Washington and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, were created merely to bring forth the stuff that would fuel the bomb. The existent design and building of the bomb took topographic point in another new town, Los Alamos, New Mexico. An full town, complete with houses, shops, schools, etc. , was constructed to suit the scientists and their households. In 1942, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was named the caput of Project Y, the group that would plan the existent bomb. On July 16, 1945, they were ready to prove bomb. In the New Mexico desert near the town of Alamogordo, a 100 pes tall steel tower had been constructed. Resting on top of the tower was the world’s foremost atomic bomb, nicknamed “Fat Man” . At five in the forenoon the bomb was detonated. The scientists watched from a concrete sand trap 10s thousand paces off. It was a success. The bomb exploded with the force of 20 thousand dozenss of TNT. What shortly followed was the building of the “Little Boy” , the bomb carried by the Enola Gay.

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