by Niall Kilkenny

2007

from Reformation Website

"This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs, and it is conceivable -  though much less certain - that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed.

 

A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for transportation by air."

Albert Einstein

letter to President Roosevelt, Aug. 1939

 

 

The first atomic bomb dropped on Japan was the NEVER TESTED gun-assembly device!!

The inventor of the gun-assembly device was Navy Captain William "Deak" Parsons.

 

So confident was he of his invention that he felt that no test was necessary of the most important part of the bomb: the nuclear chain reaction.

 

 Navy cadet William "Deak" Parsons (1901-1953), in his 1922 Naval Academy portrait.

Eye-opening biographical book by the Naval Institute Press reveals the connection between Port Chicago, Los Alamos, and Hiroshima.

Promoted to rear admiral at the end of WWII, Deak Parsons led the technical effort at Operation Crossroads and set the direction of much of the Confederate navy's nuclear policy.


Captain William "Deak" Parsons was the inventor of the gun-assembly device for Little Boy. He armed the bomb during the flight to Hiroshima and was in charge of dropping the atomic bomb on the city.

This grim Roman Catholic Fatima Crusader was a man with a mission: to develop a super weapon that would finally give a knockout blow to the Pope's enemies.

"The limitation on Little Boy was not its design but the slow, difficult process of separating uranium-235 from ore-grade uranium. After millions of dollars and months of work, the ability of the Oak Ridge plant to produce enough uranium-235 for more than one bomb by August 1945 was problematical.

 

This meant no advance testing of a complete uranium bomb; its first use would be against the enemy. Parsons and his gun group were confident that no advance test was needed. Much of this confidence stemmed from the rigorous tests Parsons had demanded of all the non-nuclear components”.

Christman

Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, pp. 149-150

That is like building a rocket ship and testing every part... except the engine. Or designing a gun and never pulling the trigger with a bullet inside to see if it works... It's pure FICTION as we will PROVE by subsequent events!!

The first bomb was designed to work like the barrel of a gun:

In the gun-assembly method, a sub critical mass of uranium-235 (the projectile) is fired down a cannon barrel into another sub critical mass of U-235 (the target), which is placed in front of the muzzle. Both gun and target are encased in the bomb. When projectile and target contact, they form a critical mass which explodes.

 

If the firing is not fast enough, the neutrons emitted by the projectile will begin interacting with the target before the contact and before the mass has become critical. In this case, a pre-detonation occurs.

Plutonium will NOT WORK with the gun-assembly device so only one bomb of this type was used.

 

Little Boy

This weapon of mass destruction was a gun-type device. In the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima, two pieces of uranium were literally blown together by high explosives in a device similar to an artillery barrel - creating the chain reaction that led to the explosion.

 

The destructive force of "Little Boy" was seven times greater than all the bombs the Allies dropped on Nazi Germany during 1942. This device was developed by Navy Captain William "Deak" Parsons!!

 

We are told that the first atomic bomb dropped on Japan was this UNPROVEN gun-assembly device which had never been tested before Hiroshima.

 

The scientists and the military had such confidence in their new super weapon that they were certain that it would work the first time - without time consuming tests. Only in fairy tales does a highly complex device work perfectly the first time!!

This weapon of mass destruction was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945.
 

 

 

The second bomb was a plutonium "implosive" device

The plutonium was WRAPPED in explosives and the explosives IMPLODED inward.

The core of the implosion bomb was a plutonium globe of a size just below the critical mass. Made of two hemispheres, it was placed in the center of a larger sphere of explosives, like the pit in a peach. Several detonators, arranged symmetrically on the outside surface and triggered simultaneously by an electric circuit, were to set off the blast. The pressure was expected to go inward and squash the core into a compressed critical mass.

 

The fission would start a fantastically fast chain reaction, splitting the billions of plutonium nuclei and thus releasing destructive energy never matched before.

"Fat man" was a plutonium implosive bomb.

 

This weapon of mass destruction was tested on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, in the southern desert of New Mexico. This weapon of mass destruction was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945.

The center of the bomb contained the plutonium and it was surrounded by high explosives.

The explosives "imploded" inward and triggered the chain reaction in the bomb.

 

 


"Fat man" was tested on July 16, 1945

Obviously the scientists and military did not have such confidence in #2 because they decided that maybe they weren't perfect after all and may have made a few mistakes.

The test was held in the desert of New Mexico on July 16, 1945. It was a spectacular success.

This second more powerful plutonium bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. Although both of these bombs used explosives to trigger the chain reaction; they were radically different in design and operation.

Trinity A-bomb test is called the first atomic explosion in the world.

 

 

 

The world was told Trinity A-bomb test was ammunition explosion!!

The atomic explosion was visible over 200 miles away but the official line was that ammunition exploded.

 

The commanding officer of the Alamogordo air base had been provided weeks before with a news release in which each word had been numbered for security. Groves now ordered the release to be distributed at once. A copy of it was rushed to the AP office in Albuquerque.

 

The wire service story that appeared in a modest half-column on the front page of the Albuquerque Tribune that afternoon carried the lead:

"An ammunition magazine, containing high-explosives and pyrotechnics, exploded early today in a remote area of the Alamogordo air base reservation, producing a brilliant flash and blast which were reported to have been observed as far away as Gallup, 235 miles northwest."

Lamont

Day of Trinity, p.250

 

 

First atomic explosion took place at Port Chicago on July 17, 1944!!

 

Port Chicago was the site of an atomic test explosion at 10:17 P.M. on July 17, 1944.   

 

 

 

 

The armed forces of the U.S. were highly segregated in 1944. The only positions open for blacks were in menial jobs.

In Port Chicago, they loaded ammunition onto ships 7 days a week in three round-the-clock 8-hour shifts.
All the overseers were Simon Legree type officers while the back breaking work was left to the black sailors.

The scientists' confidence in Little Boy seemed too good to be true... and it was...

 

A nuclear device was tested by the Navy at Port Chicago just north of San Francisco at 10:19 P.M. on July 17:

"Seismograph machines at the University of California at Berkeley recorded two jolts with the force of a small earthquake. They occurred about seven seconds apart shortly before 10:19 P.M.

 

A first, smaller explosion (which appeared to some witnesses to occur on the pier itself) was followed by a cataclysmic blast as the E. A. Bryan exploded like one gigantic bomb, sending a column of fire and smoke and debris climbing twelve thousand feet into the night sky, with hundreds of exploding shells making it look like a huge fireworks display”.

Allen

The Port Chicago Mutiny, p. 63

A plane HAPPENED to be flying over the area at that time:

"An Army Air Force plane HAPPENED to be flying over at the time. The copilot described what he saw:

'We were flying the radio range from Oakland headed for Sacramento.

 

We were flying on the right side of the radio range when this explosion occurred. I was flying at the time and looking straight ahead and at the ground when the explosion occurred. It seemed to me that there was a huge ring of fire spread out to all sides, first covering approximately three miles - I would estimate it to be about three miles - and then it seemed to come straight up.

 

We were cruising at nine thousand feet above sea level and there were pieces of metal that were white and orange in color, hot, that went quite a ways above us. They were quite large. I would say they, were as big as a house or a garage. They went up above our altitude. The entire explosion seemed to last about a minute. These pieces gradually disintegrated and fell to the ground in small pieces.

 

The thing that struck me about it was that it was so spontaneous, seemed to happen all at once, didn't seem to be any small explosions except in the air. There were pieces that flew off and exploded on all sides.

 

A good many stars and [it] looked like a fireworks display.'"

Allen

The Port Chicago Mutiny, p. 63

 

 

320 sailors were killed instantly!!

The devastation to the town of Port Chicago was complete.

 

Many were blinded by the brilliant flash of light that accompanied the explosion:

"Everyone on the pier and aboard the two ships and the fire barge was killed instantly - 320 men, 202 of whom were black enlisted men. (Only 51 bodies sufficiently intact to be identified were ever recovered.)

 

Another 390 military personnel and civilians were injured, including 233 black enlisted men. This single stunning disaster accounted for more than 15 percent of all black naval casualties during the war."

Allen

The Port Chicago Mutiny, p. 64
 


"The E. A. Bryan was literally blown to bits - very little of its wreckage was ever found that could be identified. The Quinalt Victory was lifted clear out of the water by the blast, turned around, and broken into pieces. The stern of the ship smashed back into the water upside down some five hundred feet from where it had originally been moored.

 

The Coast Guard fire barge was blown two hundred yards upriver and sunk. The locomotive and boxcars disintegrated into hot fragments flying through the air. The 1,200 foot-long wooden pier simply disappeared."

Allen

The Port Chicago Mutiny, p. 64

Aerial view showing destroyed pier and oil slick from Quinalt Victory.
 

 

 

Navy Captain William "Deak" Parsons visited Port Chicago after the explosion!!

Soon after the explosion, "Deak" Parsons left Los Alamos and visited Port Chicago to see how his invention worked:

"Parsons could not avoid the extra responsibilities that went with being the senior naval officer at Y, but many of the tasks that he took on were self-imposed. In July 1944 he did not have to personally investigate the explosion of two ammunition ships at Port Chicago northeast of San Francisco. It was, however, something he felt he had to see for himself. As the chief planner for the military delivery of an explosion of unprecedented size, he recognized the Port Chicago disaster as a chance to examine the effects of the largest explosion ever to occur in the United States.

 

"On 20 July, accompanied by a Los Alamos officer and a scientist, Parsons joined his brother-in-law Capt. Jack Crenshaw (a member of the official inquiry into cause) at Mare island, and they went together to the Port Chicago site.

 

There left nothing to chance... testing they observed what had happened when over 1, 500 tons of high explosives and additional tons of shells, smokeless powder, and incendiary clusters exploded in a harbor:

  • the USS E. S. Bryan "fragmented and widely distributed"

  • the USS Quinalt (waiting to be loaded) torn into large pieces

  • three hundred and twenty men killed (of which two-thirds were African-American seamen loading ammunition)

  • nothing left of the pier within four hundred feet of the detonation

  • a wood-frame shop demolished

  • freight cars buckled

Of the persons killed, all but five were at the center of the explosion. All of the serious damage took place within a one-mile radius."

Christman

Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, p. 154

Capt. William "Deak" Parsons at his desk in Los Alamos

where he worked with General Groves and Robert Oppenheimer

to perfect the uranium bomb.
According to his biographer, he did every component over and over!!

(Christman, p. 149).



 

Major reorganization at Los Alamos in August 1944!!

Even though the nuclear explosion at Port Arthur was a spectacular success, the scientists at Los Alamos soon discovered that there was not enough uranium-235 available for many more bombs and plutonium would not work in the gun-assembly device:

"Emilio Segré was perplexed. The handsome Italian physicist, a colleague and great friend of Enrico Fermi, was one of the discoverers of plutonium, and he felt he knew the element and its bizarre properties as well as anyone in the world. (Hard as glass under some conditions, plutonium was as soft as plastic under others; even stranger, it actually contracted when heated.)

 

But in midsummer of 1944, as he conducted tests on a tiny sample from the prototype pile at Clinton, Segré found something that seemed to stand his knowledge on its head. His tests showed that the sample contained unmistakable traces of a new plutonium isotope whose atomic weight, at 240, was one unit greater than the Pu-239 with which he and everyone else had been working.

The discovery was chilling. If Pu-240 emitted alpha particles on its own, Pu-239 would be "contaminated" by an excess of unattached neutrons. Because a gun-type bomb - a sort of adaptation of a reliable standard model then in wide use in other bombs - would be triggered by a mechanism that was relatively slow-moving, the plutonium would detonate in advance of the trigger, rendering the bomb a harmless fizzle.

 

Only in an implosion bomb - in which, theoretically at least, the mechanics were so fast that the explosion would take place before the contaminating isotope had time to cause predetonation - could the crippling effects of Pu-240 be overcome.

 

Segré's next round of tests confirmed his worst fear: Pu-240 was indeed an emitter of alpha particles. The chances of using plutonium successfully in a gun-type weapon were now virtually zero."

Lawren

The General and the Bomb, p. 171


The OLD RELIABLE gun-assembly bomb was kept as a standby as work proceeded on a new design called the implosion bomb:

"In the 'August reorganization,' Oppenheimer created two associate directors: Parsons for ordnance, engineering, assembly, and delivery, and Enrico Fermi for research and theoretical work. In addition to being named associate director, Parsons remained in charge of the Ordnance Division.

Robert Oppenheimer and General Groves

had a major reorganization at Los Alamos in August 1944!!
Parsons was allowed to go with his uranium bomb but work began on a new design:

 the implosive plutonium bomb.

 

He retained direct responsibility for the uranium gun, off-site production for the total laboratory, final weapon design, and combat delivery preparations for both bombs. However, parts of the old Ordnance Division, which had outgrown itself, split into two newly created divisions.

 

The Gadget Division for the applied physics' of the implosion weapon went to Robert F. Bacher, former head of the Experimental Physics Division and a forceful manager. The Explosives Division for the explosive components of the bomb, including the explosive lenses, went to Kistiakowsky."

Christman

Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, p. 148

Because of the shortage of uranium-235, more copies of Parson's pet uranium bomb could not be made. The gun-assembly device would not work with plutonium so that led to the invention of the implosive bomb.

The implosive design was the work of Dr. George B. Kistiakowsky and Seth Neddermeyer and featured lenses to direct the explosion inward to initiate the chain reaction.

This device was tested on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico and was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan on August 9, 1945. Parsons was promoted to Commodore after the successful A-bomb test!!

 

Within a week of the test of his gun-bomb, Captain Parsons was promoted to the rank of Commodore and assigned to Los Alamos as Deputy Director under J. Robert Oppenheimer.

 

After Hiroshima, Parsons was elevated to the rank of Rear Admiral.
 


 

Parsons flew with his "baby" all the way to Hiroshima!!

 

Even though he was a "NAVY" man, Parsons FLEW with his "baby" all the way to Hiroshima. He had given birth to the MONSTER and was not about to let it out of his sight until the mission was accomplished:
 

Commodore Parsons and Colonel Paul Tibbets briefing crews for the Hiroshima mission.

 

 

Commodore Deak Parsons (right) was awarded the Silver Star by the Army Strategic Air Forces while still wearing the shirt stained by sweat and blackened by graphite from his making the final assembly of the bomb during the Enola Gay's flight to Hiroshima.


Commodore Parsons left Tinian Island in the early morning hours of August 6, 1945, bound for the Japanese city of Hiroshima:
 

B-29 bombers of the 509th Composite Group on Tinian with an assembly of military and Project Alberta technical personnel before the bombing of Hiroshima.

Bomb compartment on the Enola Gay where Parsons watched and prayed over his "baby" on the long flight from Tinian to Hiroshima.


 


Atomic destruction of Hiroshima

Deak Parsons arrived over the city of Hiroshima just before 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945. The bomb was dropped by parachute and exploded a few thousand feet above the city.

 

He left nothing to chance and obviously it worked perfectly as he had planned:
 

The mushroom cloud rising over Hiroshima, Japan. The city of Hiroshima was the target of the world's SECOND atomic bomb on August 6, 1945. The cloud rose to over 60,000 feet in about ten minutes.

As in the case of Port Chicago, almost everything was destroyed for about a mile in every direction.


Only a few concrete buildings were left standing as almost everything was destroyed within a radius of 1 mile:

"The area devastated at Hiroshima, was 1.7 square miles, extending out a mile from ground zero. The Japanese authorities estimated the casualties at 71,000 dead and missing, and 68,000 injured."

Groves

Now It Can Be Told, p. 319



Vital Links



References

  • Alperovitz, Gar. The Decision to Use the Bomb. Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1995.

  • Allen, Robert L. The Port Chicago Mutiny: The Story of the Largest Mass Mutiny Trial In U.S. Naval History. Warner Books, New York, 1989.

  • Christman, Al. Target Hiroshima: Deak Parsons and the Creation of the Atomic Bomb, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 1998.

  • Groves, Leslie R. Now It Can Be Told: The Story of the Manhattan Project. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1962.

  • Groueff, Stephane. Manhattan Project: The Untold Story of the Making of the Atomic Bomb. Little, Brown & Co., New York, 1967.

  • Lawren, William. The General and the Bomb. A Biography of General Leslie R. Groves. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1988.

  • Lamont, Lansing, Day of Trinity. Atheneum, New York, 1965.

  • Norris, Robert S. Racing for the Bomb. Steerforth Press, South Royalton, Vermont, 2002.

  • Rodes, Richard. The Making of the Atomic Bomb. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1986.

 

 

 



 


 Possibilities of a Super Bomb in 1944!!
 

Harvard President James B. Conant with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who visited Harvard in 1943.

Inspecting the Hanford Washington plutonium production plant at the time of the Manhattan Project. From left to right: James B. Conant, Vannevar Bush, General Leslie Groves and Col. Franklin Matthias



 

"Sanitized" copy of a letter from James B. Conant to Vannevar Bush about the near possibility of a Super bomb in 1944!!

 

 


 References

  • Conant, James Bryant. 1943. A History of the Development of the Atomic Bomb. Unpublished MS. OSRD M1393, S1, Bush-Conant Folder, National Archives of the U.S.

  • Conant, James B. My Several Lives: Memoirs of a Social Inventor. Harper & Row, New York, 1970.

  • Hershberg James, James B. Conant. Harvard to Hiroshima and the Making of the Nuclear Age. Alfred A. Knoph, New York, 1993.

 

 

 

 

 

 


 Project Chariot and the Cold War - Additional Resources for Study
from ArticCircle Website


 Introduction to sources
The premier source of information about Project Chariot is a book written by Dan O'Neill entitled, The Firecracker Boys, 1994.

 

Various U.S. Atomic Energy Commission reports on Project Chariot can also be found in major libraries with large government holdings. In addition, there are a fair number of books, magazine and journal articles with important data pertaining to Project Chariot. Your local reference librarian should be of considerable assistance in tracing down these particular sources.

A second major resource is the Oral History collection of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks Rasmuson Library. This material includes extensive tape recordings of interviews by Dan O'Neill with many of the participants of Project Chariot. [Further information regarding access to this collection is provided below under 'Sources from the World Wide Web'].

As for finding materials on the Internet, one place to begin is by exploring the U.S. Government's declassified files on Project Chariot.

 

This data can be found in several locations:

  1. One site is the Department of Energy's Office of Human Radiation Experiments Information Management System [HREX].

     

    First, go to the site's home page which is: http://www.ohre.doe.gov/ - Then click on: Human Radiation Experiments Information Management System [HREX]. At this point, you have two choices.

     

    Unless you are familiar with computer data base management, choose the Standard category under Search Mode. If you are familiar with such matters [or wish to broaden your horizons] click on Expert Mode. Then click on Start HREX.

     

    You are now ready to begin your search. Under How To Search, type: Project Chariot and then click on Search For.

     

    You are now presented with a series of documents from the Department of Energy pertaining to Project Chariot. Much of the data is of limited value. However, the viewer is provided with significant insights into governmental and scientific management thinking of the time.


     

  2. Another Department of Energy www site offers an additional access to declassified files.

     

    First, go to the Department site at: http://www.ohre.doe.gov/  - Then select OpenNet which takes you to the Department of Energy's declassified files. Once in OpenNet, request "Project Chariot" in the search form.

     

    At that point, you will be told that there are a substantial number of documents referring in one way or another to Project Chariot. Select a document that looks interesting and determine how it can be obtained. [Unfortunately, the complete documents are not presently available 'online.']

     

    After viewing what is available, you can request a summary Report Query. At this point, you have just completed the first step in obtaining government documents on Project Chariot on the World Wide Web.

We at Arctic Circle are also obtaining various government records, documents, letters, academic articles, and resolutions passed by Inupiat villages pertaining to Project Chariot.

 

They will be listed below as they become available.

 

Finally, if you find other sources unknown Arctic Circle, please inform us and we will immediately bring them to the attention of other viewers.

 


 Additional References

Electronic Sources from the World Wide Web

 

Printed Library Sources

  • American Association for the Advancement of Science, Committee on Science in the Promotion of Human Welfare. "Science and Human Welfare: The AAAS Committee on Science in the Promotion of Human Welfare states the issues and calls for action,'' Science (8 July 1960), pp. 68-73.

  • Broad, William J. Teller's War: The Top Secret War Behind the StarWars Deception. Simon & Schuster, 1992,

  • Brooks, Paul, The Pursuit of Wilderness. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1971.

  • Brooks, Paul, and Joseph Foote. (19 April 1962) ''The Disturbing Story of Project Chariot," Harper's p. 60.

  • Coates, Peter, "Project Chariot: Alaskan Roots of Environmentalism," Alaska History Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall, 1989.

  • Foote, Don Charles Project Chariot and the Eskimo People of Point Hope Alaska: September 1959 to May 1960. Prepared for the USAEC, 1960.

  • Magraw, Katherine. 1988. 'Teller and the 'Clean Bomb' Episode." The Bulletin of the Atomic Seientists (May 1988), pp. 32 37.

  • Morgan, Lael. Art and Eskimo Power: The Life and Times of Alaskan Howard Rock. Epicenter Press, 1988.

  • O'Neill, Dan. The Firecracker Boys. St Martin's Press, 1994.

  • O'Neill, Dan, [comp] Project Chariot: A Collection of Oral Histories. 2 vols. Alaska Humanities Forum, 1989.

  • O'Neill, Dan. "Project Chariot: How Alaska Escaped Nuclear Excavation." The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 45 (December 1989): pp. 28-37, 1989.

  • Pruitt, William O., Jr. "Radioactive Contamination," Naturalist (Spring 1963) pp. 20 26.

  • Rainey, Froelich G. The Whale Hunters of Tigara. American Museum of Natural History, 1947.

  • Teller, Edward. 'We're Going to Work Miracles.'' Popular Mechanics ( March 1960).

  • Teller, Edward, and Albert L. Latter. Our Nuclear Future . . . Facts Dangers and Opportunities. Criterion, 1958.

  • Teller, Edward, with Allen Brown. The Legacy of Hiroshima. Doubleday, 1 962.

  • Teller, Edward, and Wilson K. Talley, Gary H. Higgins, and Gerald W. Johnson. The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosives. McGraw-Hill, I968.

  • Vanstone, James W. Point Hope: An Eskimo Village in Transition. University of Washington Press, 1962.

  • Wassemman, Harvey, and Norman Solomon. Killing Our Oun. The Disaster of America's Experience With Atomic Radiation. Delacorte Press, 1982.

  • Weaver, Lynn E., ed. Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosives. University of Arizona Press, 1970.

  • Wilimovsky, Norman J., and John N. Wolfe, eds. The Environment of the Cape Thompson Region Alaska. U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 1966.