Tuesday, May 10, 2011

The Gadget



The Manhattan Project quickly began to design and build a practical atom bomb. It is interesting that during the conceptual design stage, Edward Teller was already thinking of how to make the much more powerful Hydrogen bombs. His ideas were set aside for the time being, to pursue the conceptually much simpler fission bombs. The first bomb to be built was a plutonium implosion device, and was referred to as the "Gadget". The gadget is pictured above, prior to testing.
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6 comments:

  1. Wow what a mess! I can say that now but that was the latest in technology back then. These days we are so careful of sparks and static electricity etc during the design and manufacture stages. This bomb has wires all over housed in what looks like a metal hut. Where is OSHA? LOL.

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  2. WOW is right, and to think that if one wire was out of place it may not have worked.
    I remember when they were going to set it off, they were trying to install the plutonium into it on top of the tower as the last thing. They had a problem be cause the ball of plutonium was to big to fit in the hole in the bomb, because it had warmed up more than the gadget and became to big. Such close tolerances

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  3. How could this have possibly been transported?

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  4. Check up top. The Gadget looks like it's hanging from a huge coupling. I guess it was moved with a crane. It probably swung like a wrecking ball. Scary.

    John

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  5. At first I didn't know what that mess was, but as I read on I found out what it was. Looks like a wiry ball.

    http://theladywiththelook.blogspot.com

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  6. Wow! I don't think I would want to be around that "thing"!

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