The U 235 Discovery
In the December of 1938, a chemist names Otto Hahn was about to make a discovery that would change the world permanently. Hahn was experimenting with the silver and heavy uranium, more specifically 235 U, an unstable form of uranium. But the question he was researching was, what happens when a speeding neutron hit a uranium atom? What Hahn found was ground breaking. The uranium split into two, at the time this was thought of as impossible. But the discovery grows more complex when Hahn and Lise Meitner discovered a force created from the splitting of uranium. This force could launch a grain of sand into the air, granted that doesn't seem like much but it is because the release of one atom can launch roughly 50 Quintilian atoms.
|
Robert Oppenheimer |
Robert Oppenheimer was an American physicist and professor of physics at the University of California. When the war began some of Oppenheimer's friends started to help in the military, Oppenheimer felt obligated to help in war in some way. Oppenheimer joined the Uranium Committee and later lead a team of researchers and developers to gather information and manufacture an atomic bomb, this was called the Manhattan Project.
"The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country." -Robert Oppemheimer
|
"Mankind invented the atomic bomb, but no mouse would ever construct a mousetrap." -Albert Einstein
Los Alamos
Los Alamos, a city in New Mexico, is where in 1942 the Manhattan Project was created. An abandoned school in Los Alamos was turned into an atomic bomb research facility lead by Robert Oppenheimer. Since the research that the Manhattan Project was working on was top secret, due to Soviet spies in America, the city of Los Alamos was completely unaware of the bomb that was being built. However; the city came up with its own rumors that originated from the sudden appearance of foreign scientists and military trucks that would arrive with supplies and boxes, but leave without them. Some of these rumors extended to submarines and death rays, the crazier the rumors got the more worried Oppenheimer became.
"On 17th July there came to us at Potsdam the eagerly-awaited news of the trial of the atomic bomb in the [New] Mexican desert. Success beyond all dreams crowded this sombre, magnificent venture of our American allies. The detailed reports ... could leave no doubt in the minds of the very few who were informed, that we were in the presence of a new factor in human affairs, and possessed of powers which were irresistible." -Winston Churchill
Knut Haukelid
Since there was no way to know how far the Germans were into their atomic bomb research, when the Americans were informed that the Germans were stock piling heavy water they were worried. Heavy water can be used as a tamper which is more efficient than graphite, the tamper that the Americans were using. In order ton slow down the production of the German's atomic bomb the supply of heavy water had to be stopped. The English put the most readily available and capable person on the case; Knut Haukelid. Haukelid and a small team skied for weeks through mountains to intercept the shipment of heavy water. Haukelid and his team identified a single weakness in the planing of the shipment, the heavy water had to be transported over a body of water on a ferry. Quietly and Quickly, Haukelid sneaked onto the ship by the cover of nightfall and place explosive charges on the bow of the ship set to go off when the ferry was directly in the middle of the water body. The explosives were placed in such a way that when they detonated and the bow filled up with water, the propeller would spin uselessly in the air leaving the boat stranded.
|