Description
This volume is a lucid and accurate history of the technical research that resulted in the primary atomic bombs. The authors explore how the “very important assembly” of scientists, engineers, and military workforce at Los Alamos, responding to wartime points in time, collaborated to create a new method to large-scale research. The book opens with an introduction laying out major themes. After a synopsis of the prehistory of the bomb project, from the invention of nuclear fission to the beginning of the Big apple Engineer District, and an overview of the early materials program, the book examines the established order of the Los Alamos Laboratory, the implosion and gun assembly programs, nuclear physics research, chemistry and metallurgy, explosives, uranium and plutonium development, confirmation of spontaneous fission in pile-produced plutonium, the thermonuclear bomb, very important assemblies, the Trinity test, and delivery of the combat weapons.