History of the Atomic Bomb

  The atomic bomb was made with enriched uranium to provide a ripple affect. It was extremely difficult to find uranium-235 since it was very rare. A huge enrichment laboratory was made in Oak Ridge, Tennessee to build the bomb. The making of the atomic bomb was known as the Manhattan Project and the bomb itself was nicknamed "The Gadget." Over two billion dollars were spent in the course of six years on making the bomb. Robert Oppenheimer oversaw the entire project along with Ernest Lawrence, General Leslie R Groves, Enrico Fermi, Harold Urey, Albert Einstein, , Leo Szilard, and many more. The bomb was first built in 1939 and was tested in 1945 in New Mexico. The bomb flew upwards at 260 feet per second and the light of the explosion turned the sky orange. The mushroom shaped, radioactive cloud materialized into 30,000 feet. People from a neighboring community swore that the sun came up twice the day that the atomic bomb was tested. Even more suprising was that a blind girl that was 120 miles away saw the light illuminated by the bomb. Everyone that helped in making the bomb had mixed reactions. Oppenheimer quoted from Bhagavad Gita, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds." Ken Bainbridge told Oppenheimer, "Now, we're all sons of bitches." Despite several protests against the atomic bomb, New Mexico was not going to be the last place the atomic bomb would be used.

Robert Oppenheimer

Ernest Lawrence

General Leslie R Groves

Enrico Fermi

Harold Urey

Albert Einstein and Leo Szilard