Click2History - Einstein's Letter, THE “TRINITY TEST”, Chapter 6

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>EINSTEIN’S LETTER</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 6 - THE "TRINITY TEST"</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">Less than thirty days after President Truman’s decision to use the new weapon, a <a href="http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/1942-1944_plutonium.htm" target="_blank"><b>plutonium bomb</b></a> was <a target="_blank" href="images/assembled.jpg"><b>assembled</b></a> and <a target="_blank" href="images/made_ready.jpg"><b>made ready</b></a> for testing. (Because there was only enough "weapons-grade uranium" to build one uranium bomb, <i>that</i> design ["Little Boy"] was never tested before the bomb was used.) <a target="_blank" href="images/the_site.jpg"><b>The site</b></a> chosen to test the plutonium design was located 210 miles south of <a href="http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/establishing_los_alamos.htm" target="_blank"><b>Los Alamos</b></a> (New Mexico) in an area called <i>Jornada del Muerto</i> ("Journey of Death").</p> <p>With pictures and movies from the National Archives, the Truman Presidential Library and the U.S. Department of Energy, we can see what happened when the first nuclear bomb was tested. The <a href="http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/implosion_necessity.htm" target="_blank"><b>plutonium</b></a> device (nicknamed "<a target="_blank" href="images/the_gadget.jpg"><b>the gadget</b></a>" by Los Alamos scientists) was successfully <a href="http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/trinity_photograph.htm" target="_blank"><b>detonated</b></a> in the "<a href="http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/movies/trinty1a.mov" target="_blank"><b>Trinity Test</b></a>". (You will need Quick Time to view this movie which was filmed at 10,000 yards from "ground zero.") It was <a href="http://www.mbe.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/trinity.htm" target="_blank"><b>July 16, 1945</b></a>.</p> <p>At first scientists witnessed <a href="http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/movies/trinty2a.mov" target="_blank"><b>a fireball</b></a>. Sixteen milliseconds <a target="_blank" href="images/later.jpg"><b>later</b></a> the fireball <a target="_blank" href="images/grew.jpg"><b>grew</b></a> into a full-blown "<a target="_blank" href="images/mushroom.gif"><b>mushroom</b></a>" <a target="_blank" href="images/cloud.jpg"><b>cloud</b></a>. (<a target="_blank" href="images/these_notes.gif"><b>These notes</b></a> were made by Lansing Lamont, a scientist who witnessed the blast. They depict a drawing of the first "mushroom cloud" ever seen.)</p> <p>Twenty-four hours later, scientists and Major General Leslie Groves (the Manhattan Project’s military leader) inspected "<a target="_blank" href="images/trinity.crater.gif"><b>Trinity Crater</b></a>," the spot <a target="_blank" href="images/where.gif"><b>where</b></a> the bomb went off ("<a target="_blank" href="images/ground.jpg"><b>ground</b></a> <a target="_blank" href="images/zero.Trincrater.jpg"><b>zero</b></a>"). There was <a href="http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/trinity/groves1.html" target="_blank"><b>no question</b></a> about the bomb’s <a target="_blank" href="images/effectiveness.jpg"><b>effectiveness</b></a>. Its heat was so intense at the test tower that <a target="_blank" href="images/Oppenheimer.jpg"><b>Robert Oppenheimer</b></a> (the project’s scientific director) <a target="_blank" href="images/and.jpg"><b>and</b></a> General Groves <a target="_blank" href="images/observed6.jpg"><b>observed</b></a> that sandy soil had melted, forming a kind of glassy crust (called "<a target="_blank" href="images/Trinitite.jpg"><b>trinitite</b></a>").</p> <p>Now there was no need to delay. On the day of the test, July 16, the remaining components of "<a target="_blank" href="images/little.boy.gif"><b>Little Boy</b></a>" (later known as the Hiroshima atomic bomb) were loaded onto the <a href="http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-i/ca35-g.htm" target="_blank"><i><b>USS Indianapolis</b></i></a>. She set sail from San Francisco, headed for <a target="_blank" href="images/tinian.islands.gif"><b>Tinian</b></a>, an American-held island south of Japan. The bomb would be reassembled there, for "delivery" to a Japanese city by a B-29 known as the <a target="_blank" href="images/EnolaGay.jpg"><i><b>Enola Gay</b></i></a>.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="2"><a href="einsteins_letter_ch5.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="einsteins_letter_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="einsteins_letter_ch7.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>