Good Morning...Oppenheimer pops a nuke

[Okla-homey]

July 16, 1945: United States conducts first test of the atomic bomb

http://aycu28.webshots.com/image/20347/2002572026186047711_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002572026186047711)

On this day 62 years ago, the United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at its research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The terrifying new weapon would quickly become a focal point in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

The official U.S. development of the atomic bomb began with the establishment of the Manhattan Project in August 1942. The project brought together scientists from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada to study the feasibility of building an atomic bomb capable of unimaginable destructive power.

http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/20949/2002534187591684737_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002534187591684737)
Principal Manhattan Project sites.

The project proceeded with no small degree of urgency, since the American government had been warned that Nazi Germany had also embarked on a program to develop an atomic weapon. By July 1945, a prototype weapon was ready for testing.

http://aycu35.webshots.com/image/20914/2002518398531710337_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002518398531710337)
Scientists E.O. Laurence, Enrico Fermi & I.I. Rabi discuss work on the Manhattan Project.

Although Germany had surrendered months earlier, the war against Japan was still raging. On July 16, the first atomic bomb was detonated in the desert near the Los Alamos research facility. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the project, watched the mushroom cloud rise into the Nevada sky. "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds," he uttered, reciting a passage from an ancient Hindu text.

http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/22328/2000114108171770792_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000114108171770792)
Setting up for the first test.

http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/20537/2002527109230955660_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002527109230955660)
Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer and MG Leslie Groves, US Army Corps of Engineers officer-in-charge survey the aftermath at ground zero.

News of the successful test was relayed to President Harry S. Truman, who was meeting with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Potsdam to discuss the postwar world. Observers at the meeting noted that the news "tremendously pepped up" the president, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that Truman almost immediately adopted a more aggressive tone in dealing with Stalin.

http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/20725/2002540884839325987_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002540884839325987)
Description: Manhattan Project Pin. Circular sterling silver pin, lettered "MANHATTAN PROJECT A BOMB." 9/16 inches in diameter. N.p., circa 1945.
Note: This commemorative pin is of extreme rarity. It was apparently given to selected members of the project upon its successful completion. It is lettered in miniscule type on the reverse "WHITEHEAD-HOAG STERLING."
Source: Item 0386

Truman and many other U.S. officials hoped that possession of the atomic bomb would be America's trump card in dealing with the Soviets after the war. Use of the weapon against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 demonstrated the destructive force of the atomic bomb.

The American atomic monopoly did not last long, though. By 1949, clandestinely assisted by seditious Americans who provided design secrets, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb, marking the beginning of the nuclear arms race.

Today, the international "Nuke Club" consists of the US, UK, France, Communist China, The Former Soviet Union (Russia at least), India, Pakistan, and very probably Israel and North Korea.

http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/22344/2002565642420345300_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002565642420345300)
Description: ATOMIC WAR! Volume I, Number 2. 32 pages. Color illustrated comic book. 4to, pictorial wrappers. Canton, Ohio: Junior Books, December 1952.
Note: With four atomic battle stories: "Operation Vengeance," "The Ice-Box Invasion," "The Spy from Coney Island," and "Mission Demolition."
Source: Item 2757

http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/22282/2000124597644702424_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000124597644702424)

[47straight]

correction on something - The nuke was fired off at the Alamogordo (now White Sands) missle range, which is way far away from Los Alamos, close to Hell Paso, TX than anything else. Los Alamos is set up in the northern mountains, but they tested it in the great expanse of the desert. The mountains made for better secrecy for development, except the dirtbags who talked to the Russians.

I wish they had tested close to Los Alamos. Preferably on santa fe! :)

[VeeJay]

The Rosenbergs:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/68/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg_NYWTS.jpg/200px-Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg_NYWTS.jpg

[SoonerStormchaser]

Anyone else seen "Fat Man and Little Boy?" Awesome movie!

[JohnnyMack]

In Europe and America,
There's a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond to all the threats
In the rhetorical speeches of the Soviets
Mr. Krushchev said we will bury you
I don't subscribe to this point of view
It would be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russians love their children too

How can I save my little boy
From Oppenheimer's deadly toy
There is no monopoly of common sense
On either side of the political fence
We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too

There is no historical precedent
To put words in the mouth of the president
There's no such thing as a winnable war
It's a lie we don't believe anymore
Mr. Reagan says we will protect you
I don't subscribe to this point of view
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too

We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology
What might save us me and you
Is if the Russians love their children too

[Mjcpr]

Somebody popped one in Japan today too.

[JohnnyMack]

Somebody popped one in Japan today too.

Why do you hate Poseidon?

[Phil]

I'm a bit of a history buff myself, with a particular interest in this subject, and I was gonna do a guest column for Homey today, but didn't get time. So, I will comment on Homey's screed.


July 16, 1945: United States conducts first test of the atomic bomb

http://aycu28.webshots.com/image/20347/2002572026186047711_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002572026186047711)

Actually, this isn't a shot of the Trinity test. Trinity was fired in the dark. This is obviously a daylight shot, probably from the Nevada Test Range.




On this day 62 years ago, the United States conducts the first test of the atomic bomb at its research facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The terrifying new weapon would quickly become a focal point in the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.

As pointed out above, Trinity Site (the exact spot of the Trinity Test) is hell and gone from Los Alamos. It is actually not even anywhere near Alamogordo. The closest actual town is probably Socorro. My little brother is stationed at White Sands, and I had the opportunity to visit Trinity Site a few days after Christmas last year. We drove probably 100 miles north from the main post at WSMR to get there, all of it on the range. WSMR is the largest military installation in the U.S. Anyway, the actual site is at N33.40.636 W106.28.525, if you've got a GPS. It is truly in the middle of nowhere. On the day we were there, I am pretty sure there wasn't another human being within 40 miles. And, yes, I know the site is only open two days a year, and a few days after Christmas isn't one of those days, but my brother can pretty much get the keys whenever he wants.


The official U.S. development of the atomic bomb began with the establishment of the Manhattan Project in August 1942. The project brought together scientists from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada to study the feasibility of building an atomic bomb capable of unimaginable destructive power.

http://aycu30.webshots.com/image/20949/2002534187591684737_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002534187591684737)
Principal Manhattan Project sites.

The project proceeded with no small degree of urgency, since the American government had been warned that Nazi Germany had also embarked on a program to develop an atomic weapon. By July 1945, a prototype weapon was ready for testing.

http://aycu35.webshots.com/image/20914/2002518398531710337_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002518398531710337)
Scientists E.O. Laurence, Enrico Fermi & I.I. Rabi discuss work on the Manhattan Project.

Although Germany had surrendered months earlier, the war against Japan was still raging. On July 16, the first atomic bomb was detonated in the desert near the Los Alamos research facility. Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the project, watched the mushroom cloud rise into the Nevada sky. "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds," he uttered, reciting a passage from an ancient Hindu text.

http://aycu09.webshots.com/image/22328/2000114108171770792_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000114108171770792)
Setting up for the first test.


The big thing you see in the photo above is not the bomb itself. It is a giant steel canister nicknamed "Jumbo." It was built in Ohio and trucked to New Mexico and was designed to contain the fissile materials in case the chain reaction explosion didn't work. The bomb was triggered by conventional explosives compressing a plutonium core to critical mass, thus initiating the nuclear chain reaction. In the event the chain reaction didn't happen, Oppenheimer didn't want the precious and very expensive, not to mentioned very hazardous, plutonium scattered all over the landscape. Jumbo was big enough to contain the conventional explosion and keep the radioactive elements from scattering if the big boom didn't happen. Eventually they decided they were confident enough in the design not to use Jumbo, so they just set it a short distance off to the side when they lit the big candle. That didn't damage Jumbo at all. It's a BIG metal can. The ends of it are blown off, but not because of the nuke. Rather, years later, the Army stacked eight 500-pound bombs in one end of it and lit them off, I guess just to see what happened.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/jumbo1.jpg

This is my dad looking at Jumbo, which is now in the Trinity Site parking lot.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/jumbo2.jpg

Just to show you how big this can really is. It actually had about two or three feet more of metal banding around it that's not there any more.


http://aycu18.webshots.com/image/20537/2002527109230955660_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002527109230955660)
Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer and MG Leslie Groves, US Army Corps of Engineers officer-in-charge survey the aftermath at ground zero.


Below is what the footing in the photo above looks like now.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/footing.jpg

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/gz1.jpg

This is the obelisk at exact Ground Zero.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/gz2.jpg

The plaque on the obelisk.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/gz3.jpg

Me and the brother at Ground Zero.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/house1.jpg

The McDonald Ranch House, two miles from Ground Zero, where the final bomb assembly was conducted.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/house2.jpg

The plaque at the house.

http://www.soonerfans.com/trinity/shed.jpg

The shed covering the only portion of the original bomb crater that was left untouched. We didn't have the keys to look inside of it.




News of the successful test was relayed to President Harry S. Truman, who was meeting with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Potsdam to discuss the postwar world. Observers at the meeting noted that the news "tremendously pepped up" the president, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill believed that Truman almost immediately adopted a more aggressive tone in dealing with Stalin.

http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/20725/2002540884839325987_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002540884839325987)
Description: Manhattan Project Pin. Circular sterling silver pin, lettered "MANHATTAN PROJECT A BOMB." 9/16 inches in diameter. N.p., circa 1945.
Note: This commemorative pin is of extreme rarity. It was apparently given to selected members of the project upon its successful completion. It is lettered in miniscule type on the reverse "WHITEHEAD-HOAG STERLING."
Source: Item 0386

Truman and many other U.S. officials hoped that possession of the atomic bomb would be America's trump card in dealing with the Soviets after the war. Use of the weapon against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 demonstrated the destructive force of the atomic bomb.

In a few weeks, I'll share some pics I took in Hiroshima.




The American atomic monopoly did not last long, though. By 1949, clandestinely assisted by seditious Americans who provided design secrets, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb, marking the beginning of the nuclear arms race.

Today, the international "Nuke Club" consists of the US, UK, France, Communist China, The Former Soviet Union (Russia at least), India, Pakistan, and very probably Israel and North Korea.

http://aycu25.webshots.com/image/22344/2002565642420345300_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2002565642420345300)
Description: ATOMIC WAR! Volume I, Number 2. 32 pages. Color illustrated comic book. 4to, pictorial wrappers. Canton, Ohio: Junior Books, December 1952.
Note: With four atomic battle stories: "Operation Vengeance," "The Ice-Box Invasion," "The Spy from Coney Island," and "Mission Demolition."
Source: Item 2757

http://aycu03.webshots.com/image/22282/2000124597644702424_rs.jpg (http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000124597644702424)

Here are some good links for more info on Trinity Site:

http://www.wsmr.army.mil/pao/TrinitySite/trinst.htm

http://www.notpurfect.com/travel/nuke/trinity.html

[SoonerStormchaser]

I'll see your pics from Hiroshima and raise you my own pics from Hiroshima AND Nagasaki!

[SoonerStormchaser]

And for our friend, HoserSooner...a little something that came along some 40 years later...

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/61H0KRTFAFL._AA240_.jpg

Manhattan Project- by Rush
Imagine a time when it all began
In the dying days of a war
A weapon that would settle the score
Whoever found it first would be sure to do their worst
They always had before...

Imagine a man where it all began
A scientist pacing the floor
In each nation, always eager to explore
To build the best big stick
To turn the winning trick
But this was something more...

[Chorus:]
The big bang took and shook the world
Shot down the rising sun
The end was begun and it hit everyone
When the chain reaction was done
The big shots tried to hold it back
Fools tried to wish it away
The hopeful depend on a world without end
Whatever the hopeless may say

Imagine a place where it all began
Gathered from across the land
To work in the secrecy of the desert sand
All of the brightest boys
To play with the biggest toys
More than they bargained for...

[Chorus]

Imagine a man when it all began
The pilot of 'Enola Gay'
Flying out of the shockwave on that August day
All the powers that be, and the course of history
Would be changed forevermore...

[Phil]

I'll see your pics from Hiroshima and raise you my own pics from Hiroshima AND Nagasaki!

But what about my pics of the Enola Gay itself, in all its restored glory?

Not to mention my pics from Pearl Harbor, which started it all.

[SoonerStormchaser]

Been to both...seen em...got pics!

You seen "Bock's Car?"

[Okla-homey]

BTW,
Do any of you know why Leslie Groves got the Manhattan gig? Of all the engineers in the whole danged US Army? Hmmmm?















Because he was OIC of the construction of the (then) world's largest office complex, The Pentagon which was thrown up in less than two years with WWII war clouds looming. Ground was broken for the Pentagon on September 11, 1941, with construction completed in approximately sixteen months at a cost of $83 million. A minimal amount of steel was used in construction, which was in short supply during World War II. 680,000 tons of sand, dredged from the Potomac River, were used in the reinforced concrete structure.

He got mad props for that. Thus, he was the sort of can-do a-hole we needed to get this nuke project up and popping. As an aside, I wish he was in charge of the downtown Tulsa re-vitalization, especially the streets. I swear, when I was last in Sarajevo, the downtown streets were'nt as bad...and they've been jacking with them for over a year.

[Phil]

Been to both...seen em...got pics!

You seen "Bock's Car?"

I don't recall having seen it. Is it at Wright-Pat?

Of course, IIRC, Bock's Car was a support plane for the Hiroshima mission.

[Phil]

BTW,
Do any of you know why Leslie Groves got the Manhattan gig? Of all the engineers in the whole danged US Army? Hmmmm?

Because he was OIC of the construction of the (then) world's largest office complex, The Pentagon which was thrown up in less than two years with WWII war clouds looming. Ground was broken for the Pentagon on September 11, 1941, with construction completed in approximately sixteen months at a cost of $83 million. A minimal amount of steel was used in construction, which was in short supply during World War II. 680,000 tons of sand, dredged from the Potomac River, were used in the reinforced concrete structure.

He got mad props for that. Thus, he was the sort of can-do a-hole we needed to get this nuke project up and popping. As an aside, I wish he was in charge of the downtown Tulsa re-vitalization, especially the streets. I swear, when I was last in Sarajevo, the downtown streets were'nt as bad...and they've been jacking with them for over a year.


Actually, I did know that.

[SoonerStormchaser]

Yah...it's at the USAF museum at Wright-Pat (I lived about 3 miles from there for 12 years of my miserable life).