As previously stated, with the help of a chemical reaction, a neutron is fired at an atom to create the explosion. But, before the neutron can be fired at the atom there is one more step that has to occur. If scientists created one large supercritical mass of fissile material it would explode. Scientists prevented this problem by creating two sub critical amounts of fissile material and assembled them inside of the bomb. Inside of the bomb one sub critical mass is fired at the other one and upon contact they weld together forming a supercritical mass of fissile material. When they weld together they become critical mass. After they weld together a neutron is launched at the supercritical mass of fissile material, which results in an explosion. This whole procedure only takes about one millionth of a second. It’s pretty amazing that a destructive explosion, such as the one the atomic bomb produces, occurs so quickly.
Upon learning how the atomic bomb actually works you have to wonder who was were smart enough to invent something so destructive and so powerful as this. Many scientists worked on this project for numerous months. Some of those scientists include Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Harold Urey and Major General Leslie Groves. This project was carried out in great secrecy. A number of scientists influenced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to fund a project to build military weapons with nuclear fission. The same scientists also persuaded Albert Einstein to help in the construction of this project. In February of 1940, Roosevelt made 6,000 dollars available to start research under the supervision of a committee headed by L.J. Briggs. When the U.S. entered the war The War Department then supervised the project. By 1942 the project was fully under way and earned its code name, The Manhattan Project, because most of the research was done at Colombia University located in Manhattan. Several countries around the world also started research on this project about the same time the United States did. These countries, Canada and Britain primarily, organized a meeting and agreed to work on it together. Britain and Canada sent their best scientists to America to help with the project. By the summer of 1945 amounts of uranium needed to cause an explosion became available. As soon as these amounts were obtained a date was set to test the first atomic bomb. By this time the project had grown from 6,000 dollars to 2,000,000,000 dollars. On the sixteenth of July the United States successfully conducted the world’s first nuclear test, the “Fat Man” test, whose projects code name was Trinity. The blast was described by Groves’ assistant, General Thomas F. Farrell. He said,
For the first time in history there was a nuclear explosion; and what an explosion! The lighting effects beggarded description. The whole country was lighted by a searing light with the intensity many times that of the midday sun. It was golden, purple, violet, grey and blue. It lighted every peak of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately. Thirty seconds after the explosion came, first, the air blast pressing hard against people and things, to be followed almost immediately by the strong, sustained, awesome roar which warned of doomsday and made us feel that we puny things were blasphemous to dare tamper with the forces heretofore reserved to the Almighty.
To the human eye the explosion of the atomic bomb looks fascinating. But, to the human body, it ca be fatal. The human body can suffer from four main things during and after an explosion of the atomic bomb. They include a combination of burns resulting from the intense heat rays and fires, broken bones and lacerations resulting from the atomic blast, damage to the external and internal body from acute radiation and damage to the external and internal body due to the after effects of the radiation. Burns resulting from the use of the atomic bomb can be classified by two categories, primary burns and secondary burns. Primary burns are usually a result of being exposed to direct heat rays. The secondary burns are caused from the fires ignited by those heat rays. In Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people who were within a mile of the hypocenter, which is the center of the explosion, in open areas were exposed to the direct heat rays and burned through the skin, into the tissue below and even some of their internal organs were damaged. Those who were only two miles away from the hypocenter received severe burns. People who were lucky enough to be three miles away from the hypocenter were only slightly burned on the surface of their skin. In the cities thousands of people, who were trapped in buildings that collapsed, were burnt to death by fires, which were ignited by heat rays from the explosion. The atomic blast can cause two types of injuries. Primary injuries, which were caused by the blast it self, and secondary injuries, which were caused by collapsing structures due to the blast. People were hurled into the air as the blast wave hit, the clothes they were wearing, which weren’t burned, were torn into tatters. The skin on the people’s body was stripped right off their bone. Many people in the cities were bombarded with sharp pieces of glass flying from shattered windows. Up until recently people were still having pieces of glass removed from their skin. As I previously mentioned, the human body also suffers from acute radiation. Acute radiation is the radiation that caused radiation-related symptoms which subsided after five months or so. Some of the effects caused by acute radiation are nausea, and loss of red or white blood cells. Loss of hair is also a very common effect of acute radiation. The last type of effects on the human body are the long term effects caused by an excessive amount of radiation. Some of these include Keloids, Leukemia, Cancer of the thyroid, breast and lungs and in-uteri exposure. Many fetuses died in their mothers’ wombs but some made it out alive with no affects whatsoever. One common problem with the children was they had smaller skulls than normal. In some cases this problem was accompanied by retardation.
The atomic bomb also caused severe damage to the surrounding area. The main problems that occurred in the surrounding areas were damage caused by the atomic blast, damage caused by heat rays which produced high temperature fires, fallout and black rain. The amount of pressure that comes from the explosive power of the atomic bomb is enormous. At the hypocenter the pressure of the blast was measured at eleven tons per square foot. As the blast wave travels farther away from the hypocenter the intensity of the blast decreases. After the blast wave stops a huge vacuum of air and pressure is created at the hypocenter. This vacuum causes the wind to reverse directions and has the effect of another blast. A third effect on the surrounding area, created by the use of the atomic bomb, is heat rays and high temperature fires. The intense heat rays that are created by the explosion caused all combustible material, including houses, to spontaneously combust. “In addition to these fires, many other fires began from things such as kitchen stoves that were knocked over. All the ruins of the fires were melted together like lava and distorted due to the intense heat.” (Rhodes, 37). Another effect on the surrounding area of where an atomic bomb is dropped is an effect known as fallout. When an atomic bomb explodes near the earth’s surface particles such as rocks, dirt and sand are sucked up into a massive fireball. The dirt that is sucked up by the fireball is coated in radioactive fragments. The radioactive debris returns to the earth’s surface after the explosion. The time it takes for the radioactive debris to reach the earth’s surface again can be determined by the height of the mushroom cloud formed after the explosion of the atomic bomb. The last effect that can possibly occur to the surrounding area of where the atomic bomb is dropped is known as black rain. “Large amounts of fallout, referred to as ‘ashes of death’ were contained in the rain in the form of soot and dust and caused radiation contamination in remote areas distant from the hypocenter.” (Effects on Surrounding Areas, 4)
Now that you have learned how the atomic bomb physically works and what damage it can do to human beings and the surrounding area, you are probably wondering why we would build it, let alone use it against Japan in World War II. By using the bomb against Japan thousands of innocent people were killed and sustained severe injuries. The United States decided to build the atomic bomb because a German scientist named Werner Heisenberg discovered nuclear fission during the war. Afraid that plans for the ultimate weapon might fall into Adolph Hitler’s hands, the U.S. went straight to work building one. If Hitler had the ability to use the bomb he probably would have, which would have led to Nazi worldwide domination. Luckily, Heisenberg over estimated the amount of critical mass needed to build the atomic bomb. When the German government asked for it Heisenberg said that if he were able to figure out how to build one it wouldn’t be ready in time for war so the German government delayed building it. After the U.S. discovered this they were relieved. Then soon after the Allied power defeated the Germans in WW II, the U.S. discovered that Japan had a major attack planned against the U.S. It was at this time that President Roosevelt decided that using the atomic bomb would be a way to finally put an end to the war and stop the threat of Japan. So the U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. As planned these ended the war and the Japanese finally surrendered.
So as you can see, the atomic bomb was an essential weapon for the U.S. to have in WWII. If we did not have it then the attack from Japan might have been carried out extending the war. Also if it weren’t for the discovery of nuclear fission, which is how the atomic bomb works, other nuclear advancements such as the hydrogen bomb would not have been possible. If it weren’t for the atomic bomb World War II could have been extended for another five years or we might even have been under Japanese control right now? Now you probably realize why the atomic bomb’s history and effects have changed war history and modern warfare forever.
