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KF5JRV > TODAY 16.07.19 11:39z 11 Lines 2621 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10683_KF5JRV
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 16
Path: HB9ON<IW2OHX<IR2UBX<F1OYP<ON0AR<VE2PKT<F4BWT<GB7YEW<AB0AF<KF5JRV
Sent: 190716/1136Z 10683@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.18
On this day in 1945, at 5:29:45 a.m., the Manhattan Project comes to anexplosive end as the first atom bomb is successfully tested in Alamogordo, NewMexico.
Plans for the creation of a uranium bomb by the Allies were established asearly as 1939, when Italian emigre physicist Enrico Fermi met with U.S. Navydepartment officials at Columbia University to discuss the use of fissionablematerials for military purposes. That same year, Albert Einstein wrote toPresident Franklin Roosevelt supporting the theory that an uncontrolled nuclearchain reaction had great potential as a basis for a weapon of mass destruction.In February 1940, the federal government granted a total of $6,000 forresearch. But in early 1942, with the United States now at war with the Axispowers, and fear mounting that Germany was working on its own uranium bomb, theWar Department took a more active interest, and limits on resources for theproject were removed.
Brigadier-General Leslie R. Groves, himself an engineer, was now in completecharge of a project to assemble the greatest minds in science and discover howto harness the power of the atom as a means of bringing the war to a decisiveend. The Manhattan Project (so-called because of where the research began)would wind its way through many locations during the early period oftheoretical exploration, most importantly, the University of Chicago, whereEnrico Fermi successfully set off the first fission chain reaction. But theProject took final form in the desert of New Mexico, where, in 1943, Robert J.Oppenheimer began directing Project Y at a laboratory at Los Alamos, along withsuch minds as Hans Bethe, Edward Teller, and Fermi. Here theory and practicecame together, as the problems of achieving critical mass—a nuclearexplosion—and the construction of a deliverable bomb were worked out.
Finally, on the morning of July 16, in the New Mexico desert 120 miles south ofSanta Fe, the first atomic bomb was detonated. The scientists and a fewdignitaries had removed themselves 10,000 yards away to observe as the firstmushroom cloud of searing light stretched 40,000 feet into the air andgenerated the destructive power of 15,000 to 20,000 tons of TNT. The tower onwhich the bomb sat when detonated was vaporized.The question now became—on whom was the bomb to be dropped? Germany was theoriginal target, but the Germans had already surrendered. The only belligerentremaining was Japan.
A footnote: The original $6,000 budget for the Manhattan Project finallyballooned to a total cost of $2 billion.
73, Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV @ KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email: KF5JRV@GMAIL.com
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