Who is invented atomic bomb

Robert Oppenheimer was an American theoretical physicist. During the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer was director of the Los Alamos Laboratory and responsible for the research and design of an atomic bomb. By the time the Manhattan Project was launched in the fall of , Oppenheimer was already considered an exceptional theoretical physicist and had become deeply involved in exploring the possibility of an atomic bomb.

Throughout the previous year he had been doing research on fast neutrons, calculating how much material might be needed for a bomb and how efficient it might be. Although Oppenheimer had little managerial experience and some troublesome past associations with Communist causes, General Leslie Groves recognized his exceptional scientific brilliance.

Less than three years after Groves selected Oppenheimer to direct weapons development, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. As director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, Oppenheimer proved to be an extraordinary choice. Oppenheimer was married to a botanist, Kitty. They had two children, Peter and Toni.

Oppenheimer was born on April 22, Felix Adler. The progressive society placed an emphasis on social justice, civic responsibility, and secular humanism. His academic prowess was apparent very early on, and by the age of 10, Oppenheimer was studying minerals, physics, and chemistry. His correspondence with the New York Mineralogical Club was so advanced that the Society invited him to deliver a lecture—not realizing that Robert was a twelve-year-old boy.

He graduated as valedictorian of his high school class in , but fell ill with a near-fatal case of dysentery and was forced to postpone enrolling at Harvard. After being bedridden for months, his parents arranged for him to spend the summer of in New Mexico, a haven for health-seekers. Robert stayed at a dude ranch 25 miles northeast of Santa Fe with high school teacher Herbert Smith as a companion and mentor.

From there, he took five- or six-day horseback trips in the wilderness. Oppenheimer enrolled at Harvard in September Martin plant in Omaha, Nebraska, to apply the lessons learned at Muroc. That month the decision was made to train a special group to deliver the first atomic bombs; and a squadron then based at Fairmont, Nebraska, in training for assignment to Europe, was selected to form the nucleus of the new organization, which was designated the th Composite Group.

Tibbetts to command the th. Tibbets was highly qualified for the position. An intensive training program for the th took place, designed specifically to prepare the crews for a high altitude release of the bomb, including an escape maneuver that would avoid the shock wave that could damage or destroy the aircraft. In May the th deployed to its intended operational base, Tinian. President Roosevelt died on April 12, and Harry Truman assumed the Presidency and inherited the responsibility for final nuclear weapon decisions.

The first was regarding plans to drop an atomic bomb on Japan. Their initial intention was to select cities that had not previously been heavily damaged by the Twentieth Air Force's conventional-weapon bombing campaign, but such pristine targets had become scarce.

Finally they tentatively chose 17 cities, in a list that included Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For several years there had been dissent among scientists and political leaders over the morality and necessity of using atomic bombs against Japan.

There was no ignoring, however, the fanaticism of Japanese soldiers, demonstrated at Tinian, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and other Pacific islands. An invasion of Japan would be extremely difficult and would inevitably result in the loss of thousands of lives, Americans as well as Japanese, civilian and military. The next step in development of a weapon was to conduct a live test of a nuclear detonation. The site was to be on a scrub-growth area on the Alamogordo Bombing Range two hundred miles south of Los Alamos.

The test was named "Trinity". After agonizing hours of transport, installation and assembly, including many anticipatory concerns, an implosion bomb using plutonium was installed in a tower and detonated on 16 July The yield was calculated to have been Shortly before the Trinity test the cruiser U. Indianapolis departed from San Francisco carrying most of the components of what was to be the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan.

The bomb was a gun-type weapon called Little Boy. Its destination was Tinian, where the th Composite Group was based. Components of another bomb, an implosion weapon called Fat Man, intended to be dropped on a second Japanese city, were also carried to Tinian by C and B aircraft. It listed the targets to be attacked and included Hiroshima and Nagasaki, among others; and it referred to the possible use of more than one bomb.

Hiroshima was an industrial area with a number of military installations. Nagasaki was a major port with shipbuilding and marine repair facilities.

In general, the participants in the decision to use multiple bombs considered that such employment would enhance the psychological effect on the Japanese government and would be conducive to ending the war without the need for an invasion, a paramount objective. On August 6, , the B Enola Gay carrying Little Boy and piloted by the commander of the th Composite Group, Colonel Paul Tibbets, dropped its bomb on Hiroshima, destroying most of the city and causing possibly , deaths.

The weather over the target was satisfactory, and the bombardier, Major Thomas Ferrebee, was able to use a visual approach. The bomb's detonation point was only approximately feet from the aiming point, the Aioi Bridge, an easily identifiable location near the center of the city.

The yield of the bomb was The primary target for Bock's Car had been the arsenal city of Kokura, but cloud conditions necessitated selection of the secondary target, Nagasaki.

Bomb delivery was successful although broken cloud cover necessitated a partial radar and partial visual approach.

The number of deaths at Nagasaki was approximately 70,, less than at Hiroshima because of steep hills surrounding the city. The yield was 22 KT. On August 15 the Emperor of Japan broadcast his acceptance of the Potsdam Proclamation, which on July 26, , had set forth the Allies' terms for ending the war.

In his address to the nation the Emperor cited that the Americans had "begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable" and that this, along with the "war situation," was the reason for his accepting the surrender terms. Bibliography Rhodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon and Schuster. Tibbetts, Paul W.

The Tibbetts Story. Stein and Day. This item was created by a contributor to eHistory prior to its affiliation with The Ohio State University. As such, it has not been reviewed for accuracy by the University and does not necessarily adhere to the University's scholarly standards. Skip to main content. You are here Home » Articles. The Story of the Atomic Bomb. Themes World War II. He reasoned that if you could find an atom that was split by neutrons and in the process emitted two or more neutrons, then a mass of this element would emit vast amounts of energy in a self-sustaining chain reaction.

Szilard pursued the idea with little success. When they analysed the debris they were stunned to find traces of the much lighter element barium. As luck would have it, Hahn and Strassman were opponents of the regime.

Hahn wrote to the Austrian chemist Lise Meitner, who had worked with him in Berlin until she fled to Sweden after the Nazis occupied Vienna in Meitner wrote back explaining that the uranium nucleus was splitting into two roughly equal parts. The next piece of the puzzle came when Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, who had fled Fascism and was working at Columbia University in New York, discovered that uranium fission released the secondary neutrons that were needed to make the chain reaction happen.

Szilard soon joined Fermi in New York. Together they calculated that a kilogram of uranium would generate about as much energy as 20, tonnes of TNT. Szilard already saw the prospect of nuclear war. Others did have doubts, however. In the Danish physicist Niels Bohr — who was actively helping German scientists escape via Copenhagen — poured cold water on the idea.

He pointed out that uranium, the isotope which makes up