Trinity and, 656, 665, 668–69, 672
Ulam and, 538, 543, 546
Teller, Max, 111, 113
Teller, Mici Harkanyi, 225, 281, 416, 428, 538, 765
on Los Alamos, 564–65
Teller, Paul, 538, 564
Tempest, The (Shakespeare), 468
Tennessee Eastman, 491–92, 600, 649–50
Terman, Lewis M., 143
TERMINAL, see Potsdam Conference
thermal-diffusion plants, 533, 602
thermodynamics, 19–20, 30–31, 70–71
thermonuclear fusion, 374–75, 417–18
thermonuclear reactions:
Bethe on, 150, 370, 415, 418–19
in deuterium, 416–21, 466, 540, 543–44
Gamow and, 370
Oppenheimer on, 418–19, 564
Teller on, 418–20
Thin Man, 541, 582
Thomas, Charles A., 579–80
Thomsen, Vilhelm, 55
Thomson, G. P., 296
military aspects of nuclear fission and, 329–30, 339–41, 343, 368–70, 377
nuclear advisory committee of, 329–30, 339–41, 343
Thomson, J. J., 124, 169, 216, 296, 329
Aston and, 138–40
Bohr and, 64–66
cathode ray experiments of, 38–40
electron theory sustained by, 38–39, 65, 72
Rutherford and, 37, 38–39, 49, 123
Thomson, William (Lord Kelvin), 39, 49, 230
thorium, 42–43, 45
resonance in capture cross sections of, 282–87
uranium compared to, 283–87, 322
393rd Bombardment Squadron, U.S., 582–84
Tibbets, Enola Gay Haggard, 583
Tibbets, Paul, 583–84, 679
atomic bombing of Nagasaki and, 737–39
authority of, 586
B-29 crews briefed by, 700–701, 704, 707
blockbuster program and, 589–90
combat crews of, 580–81
Enola Gay and, 703–4
evasive maneuvers practiced by, 585–86, 699
LeMay and, 680
with Little Boy strike crew, 705–11
Target Committee and, 638–39
Timaeus (Plato), 116
Time, 113, 445, 554–55
Time-Life, 518, 770
Times (London), 14, 26–27, 169
Tinian, 554–56, 593–94, 597, 679–82
Tizard, Henry T., 325, 329–30, 351, 371, 427, 470
Togo, Shigenori, 684–85, 693, 736
Tokugawa Shogunate, 712
Tokyo:
as atomic bomb target, 744
conventional bombings of, 590–91, 595–600, 612, 627, 640, 688, 734
propaganda leaflets dropped on, 744
Tolman, Richard C., 185–86, 336–37, 446, 553
Los Alamos and, 465
Oppenheimer and, 563–64
Target Committee and, 630, 638
Trinity and, 664
Trabacchi, G. C., 209, 212
Tragedy of Man, The (Madach), 107–8
Treasury Department, U.S., 490
Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism (Maxwell), 30
Tregaskis, Richard, 519–20
Trinity, 571–72, 631, 646
Base Camp of, 653, 663–64, 666–69, 672, 673, 675–76
castings transported to, 658–59
control bunker of, 665–69, 671, 672, 674–75
countdown for, 668–70
Creutz test and, 661–63
detonation at, 670–76
experiments for, 654–55, 663, 674, 677
explosive yield of, 656, 669, 674, 677, 687
Ground Zero of, 653–54, 660, 665–69, 677
lethal effects of, 677–78
pressure associated with, 657, 668
proving ground for, 652–54
risks considered at, 664–65
scheduling of, 652, 655, 656, 657–58, 663
site construction for, 654
weather as factor for, 656, 658, 663–67
tritium, 420
hydrogen bomb’s use of, 543–44, 546, 563, 564
Tronstad, Lief, 455–57, 468
Truman, Harry S.:
Arnold and, 745
atomic bomb briefing of, 617, 618, 623–25
atomic bombing halted by, 743
atomic bombing of Hiroshima and, 734
atomic bomb’s use approved by, 651, 688, 690–91, 698
on atomic bomb targeting, 690–91
Berlin toured by, 682, 683
Byrnes and, 618–20, 625–26, 628–29, 636, 651, 682, 686–87, 689–90, 742
Churchill and, 656
Groves and, 624, 625–26
Harriman and, 621–22, 625, 626
honors of, 698
Interim Committee and, 628–29, 630, 651
Japanese surrender and, 688–89, 692, 697, 742–43, 745
Manhattan Project and, 614, 617–18, 624
George Marshall and, 622
Molotov and, 622–23
Oppenheimer and, 690
Potsdam Conference and, 682–83, 689–90, 692
proposed Japanese invasion and, 641
Roosevelt’s death and, 614, 617
Soviet policy of, 621–23
Stalin and, 622–24, 625, 656, 685, 689–91
Stimson and, 617–18, 622, 623–26, 628–29, 639–40, 650–51, 682–84, 686–87, 690–91, 742
Szilard and, 636, 649
Target Committee and, 626
Trinity and, 687, 690
Tube Alloys project, 485, 523, 528, 537–38
Tuck, James L., 522, 544–45, 759
tunnel effect, 149–50
Turner, Louis, A., 346–47, 350
Tuve, Merle, 144, 146, 269, 272, 308, 355, 374, 477n
Twelfth Army Group, U.S., 608
Twentieth Air Force, U.S., 600, 626–28
20th Bomber Command, U.S., 589
21st Bomber Command, U.S., 587, 627
Uber ein neues Prinzip zur Herstellung hoher Spannungen (Wideröe), 145
Uhlenbeck, George, 270, 274, 275
Ulam, Adam, 309
Ulam, Françoise, 543, 565
Ulam, Stanislaw, 196, 309
Bethe and, 543
hydrogen bomb and, 543
implosion studies and, 544
Los Alamos and, 543–44, 565–66
Neumann and, 107, 112–13, 543–44
Teller and, 538, 543, 546
Trinity and, 627
ultramicrochemistry, 409–10
ultraviolet catastrophe, 70
uncertainty principle, 130–33, 151, 364
Union Carbide, 494, 601–2, 650
United Nations, 535, 622–23, 625, 628
United Nations Charter, 693
United States, 196
arms race and, 535–36
British atomic collaboration with, 357–59, 500, 523–24, 526–27, 537, 543–44, 546, 655
physics in, 141–43, 151
war-gas arsenal of, 100–101
“Unity of Human Knowledge, The” (Bohr), 58
“unsuccessful search for transuranic elements, An” (Segré) 349
uranium, 41–43, 118, 500
critical mass of, 321–23, 335, 355, 362, 379–80, 382, 386–87, 395, 420–21, 461, 464, 487–88, 540, 582, 601, 610–12, 613
fast-fission cross-section measurements of, 333–35, 338, 355–56, 367–68, 373, 386, 410–11
Frisch and, 258–65, 269–71, 273, 319–20, 322–23, 610–12
Groves and, 427, 500, 638, 649
Hahn’s research on, 232, 234–35, 247–48, 250–55, 257–58, 260–62, 266
isotopes of, 285–89, 294, 297, 300, 311–12, 317, 319–20, 322–23, 326, 330, 332–33, 338–40, 343, 345–52, 368, 375, 380–81, 387–88, 405–6
Joliot-Curies and, 234–35, 247
Meitner’s research on, 232, 234–35, 248, 258–64
neutron bombardment of, 212–13, 220–2
1, 230–32, 234–35, 247–48, 250–55, 257–58, 261–64, 267, 274
neutrons absorbed by, 300, 348
neutrons released by, 280–81, 288–96, 298, 300, 343–44
nuclear-binding energy of, 258–63, 286–87
nuclear fission and, 258–67, 269, 274, 282–88
plutonium extracted from, 407–10
resonance in capture cross sections of, 282–87, 300, 348, 386
slow-neutron chain reaction in, 394–95
Soviet access to, 638, 649
spontaneous fission of, 501, 540–41
thorium compared to, 283–87, 322
uranium gun (Little Boy), see Little Boy
uranium hexafluoride, 332, 340, 345, 368, 492–94, 550, 581, 602
uranium hydride, 610, 611
uranium oxide, 395–96, 400–401, 427, 429–31, 435–36, 607–9, 612–13
uranium tetrachloride, 487
uranyl nitrate hexahydrate (UNH), 353–54, 409, 411, 413
Urey, Harold, 270, 352, 418, 636
Dunning and, 380–81
Groves and, 495–96
isotope separation and, 380–81, 388, 492–93, 495
plutonium extraction and, 408, 448
radioactive warfare and, 510
U235, U238, 335, 352, 355, 366, 458, 486, 563
Herbert Anderson on, 298
in atomic bomb, 387, 388–89
Bohr on, 285–89, 294, 297, 311, 319–20, 322, 500
Conant on, 368–69
cosmic rays and, 540–41
Dunning and, 289n, 297–98, 332–33, 492, 500
Einstein on, 297
electromagnetic separation of, 360, 373, 388, 405–6, 448, 487–92, 495, 500, 600–602
gaseous diffusion of, 297–98, 332–33, 339–40, 343, 345, 368, 380–81, 457, 488, 492–96, 500, 550, 552–54, 580–82, 602, 612
Harteck on, 311
Heisenberg on, 326, 403
hydrogen bomb and, 371, 375
liquid thermal diffusion of, 550–53, 580–81, 602
Lindemann and, 359
mass spectroscopy of, 285, 297–98, 317
MAUD on, 368–69, 377
Nier and, 297–98, 317, 332–33, 347
Simon on, 339–40, 343, 345, 492
see also uranium
U236, 347
U239, 347–50, 352
V-1, V-2 rockets, 512
Van de Graaf, Robert J., 144, 272
Van de Graaf generator, 272, 476
Vandegrift, Alexander A., 518–19
Van Kirk, Theodore J. (Dutch), 704, 706, 708–11
Van Vleck, John H., 415, 465
V-E Day (May 8, 1945), 629–30
Vemork heavy-water installation, 512
British sabotage of, 455–57, 468, 515
heavy-water shipments from 513–17
Verne, Jules, 107
Vienna, University of, 79
Vienna Radium Institute, 157–58
Villard, P. V., 42
Vinberg, Fyodor, 17–18, 181–84
“Voice of the Dolphins, The” (Szilard), 22
Volta, Alessandro, 128, 131, 395
Voltaire, 230
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr., 593
Wahl, Arthur C., 353–54
Wallace, Henry, 369, 378, 743
Wannsee Conference (1942), 475
War Department, U.S., 736
War Office, British, 87, 224, 378
War Production Board, U.S., 427
Warren, Stafford, 677
Warsaw, 341
Washington, George, 618
Washington Conferences on Theoretical Physics (1939), 269–71, 280
Washington Evening Star, 273
Waste Land, The (Eliot), 123
water, as pile coolant, 411–12, 498
Watson, Edwin M., 313–15, 317, 331–32
Wattenberg, Albert, 401, 438–39
Weaver, Warren, 360
Webster, H. C., 159–61
Weil, George, 396, 438–39
Wein, Wilhelm, 129
Weisskopf, Victor, 206, 208, 210, 524–25
Trinity and, 652–53, 668, 674, 675
Weizmann, Chaim, 46–47, 113, 173, 181
background of, 87
Churchill and, 88–89
Lloyd George and, 88–90
Rutherford described by, 46–47
scientific work of, 87–90
Szilard and, 193, 221–22
Zionism of, 86–88, 238
Weizsäcker, Carl F. von, 312, 371, 384, 385, 609
isotope separation and, 350
neutron multiplication experiments of, 343–44
Wells, H. G., 266, 637
Soddy and, 44
Szilard and, 14, 21, 24, 107
Wendover Field, Utah, 584–85
Werner, Louis B., 409, 413–15
Westinghouse, 650
Weyl, Herman, 126
Wheeler, John A., 228, 328
Bohr and, 264–65, 311, 319, 323
on fission-product poisoning, 558–60
plutonium extraction and, 408, 411
White, James, 649
Whitehead, Alfred North, 123
Wideröe, Rolf, 145, 148
Wigner, Eugene, 308, 317
administration of atomic bomb project and, 422, 423
awards of, 106
background of, 106, 108–9, 126
Compton and, 381
Einstein and, 303–4, 305
Fermi and, 206, 440–42
group theory of, 187
Hanford plutonium piles and, 498, 559–60
military aspects of nuclear fission and, 381
Neumann and, 108–9, 196
nuclear chain reaction and, 303–4, 305, 308, 315
nuclear fission and, 265–66, 293–94
physics defined by, 35
pile experiments and, 439–42
plutonium extraction and, 408, 410–11
Szilard and, 16, 18–19, 187, 266, 281–82, 292–93, 303–4, 312–13, 498, 507, 509
William II, Emperor of Germany, 17, 78–79, 80–81, 99, 156, 341–42
Wilson, C. T. R., 67
Wilson, Robert R., 452, 476–77, 566–67
Wilson, Volney, 422–23, 437–39, 442
Wilson, Woodrow, 237
Window, 472–73, 475
Wolfe, Henry C., 520–21
Wood, Edward F. L., Lord Halifax, 526, 528, 538, 620
World Set Free, The (Wells), 24, 26, 44
World War I, 14–16, 90–95, 98–103, 358
xenon effect, 559
X-ray crystallography, 17–19, 82–83
X rays, 238, 670
Compton’s studies with, 363–64
implosion diagnosed with, 573–74
Rutherford’s research on, 39, 43
Thomson’s study of, 38–39, 41
X-ray spectra, 81–85, 115, 363
xylyl bromide, 94
Yalta Conference (1944), 618, 623, 646
Yamamoto, Isoroku, 392
Yasuda, Takeo, 327, 346
York, Herbert F., 327, 502
Ypres, Battle of (1915), 90–92, 94
Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie, 230
Zeitschrift für Physik, 127, 141–42, 209
Zeppelin, Count Ferdinand von, 99
Zeppelins, 98–99
Zhukov, Georgi, 401–2
zinc sulfide, 47–48, 130
Zinn, Walter, 288–89, 291
pile studies and, 396, 401, 429–31, 433–35, 437–38, 559
Zionism, 86–88, 90, 173, 238, 636
ZIP control rods, 438–40
Zurich, University of, 172–73
Zyklon B, 475
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Rhodes, Richard.
The making of the atomic bomb / Richard Rhodes.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Atomic bomb—History. I. Title
QC773.R46 1986 623.4’5119’09 86-15445
ISBN 978-1-4516-7761-4
ISBN: 978-1-4391-2622-6 (eBook)
The author is grateful for permission to reprint excerpts from:
Reminiscences of Los Alamos, 1943–1945 by Lawrence Badash, et al., copyright © 1980 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland.
Energy and Conflict by Stanley A. Blumberg and Gwinn Owens, copyright © 1976. Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons and reprinted by permission of Ann Elmo Agency.
Rutherford by A. S. Eve, copyright 1939. Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press.
Atoms in the Family by Laura Fermi, copyright 1954. Reprinted by permission of University of Chicago Press.
What Little I Remember by Otto Frisch, copyright © 1979. Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press.
Now It Can Be Told by Leslie R. Groves, copyright © 1962 by Leslie R. Groves. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.
Hiroshima Diary by Michihiko Hachiya, translated and edited by Warner Wells, M.D., copyright 1955. Reprinted by permission of University of North Carolina Press.
The Uranium People by Leona Marshall Libby, copyright © 1979. Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Death in Life by Robert Jay Lifton, copyright © 1982 by Robert Jay Lifton. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books, Inc. Publishers.
Children of the Atomic Bomb by Arata Osada, copyright © 1967. Midwest Publishers.
Niels Bohr by Stefan Rozental, copyright © 1967. Reprinted by permission of North-Holland Physics Publishing, Amsterdam.
Enrico Fermi, Physicist by Emilio Segrè, copyright © 1970. Reprinted by permission of University of Chicago Press.
Robert Oppenheimer: Letters and Recollections by Alice Kimball Smith and Charles Weiner, copyright © 1980 by Alice Kimball Smith and Charles Weiner. Reprinted by permission of Harvard University Press; also reprinted by permission of Spencer R. Weart at the American Institute of Physics and for quotes from the Bridgeman Papers, Harvard University Archives.
Adventures of a Mathematician by Stanislaw Ulam, copyright © 1977 by S. M. Ulam. Reprinted by permission of Charles Scribner’s Sons.