Creators and Origins of the H Bomb
George F. Kennan 1904- Grew up in Milwaukee, graduated Princeton in 1926, in 1944 was the head ambassador to the USSR. He reported the first events of USSR�s first A bomb test, and later in 1955 its first H bomb test, sparking the US to take up its own program. Hans A. Bethe 1906- Originally wanting nothing to do with the creation of an atomic bomb, but still wanting to contribute in the fight against the Nazi power, Hans finally consented and joined Robert Oppenheimer�s group of top level physicists at Berkeley. On his cross country trip in a car from where he taught at Cornell, he picked up his friend Edward Teller. Together they developed the atomic bomb. As a result, he became head of weapons development at Los Alamos. He was then violently opposed to the H bomb, fighting with his former friend Teller, who supported and developed it. Edward Teller 1908- "One of the most thoughtful statesmen of science," said a Nobel Prize winner of him and "A danger to all that's important," by another. He put all of his effort into the hydrogen bomb and was one of the main influences of the H bomb, often called the father of the hydrogen bomb. Born in Hungry and graduated form Germany in 1931, he immigrated to the US in 1935 and taught at GWU. He worked on the Manhattan Project but even before the A bomb had been built, him and scientist Enrico Fermi started talking about a super bomb that used deuterium to ignite a thermonuclear reaction. After the UUSR had run its first test the project was finally given the go ahead by Truman, in January 1950. He ran into trouble with fellow scientist due to his pride and strong defensive stance. He remained one of the H bombs biggest advocates throughout the second half of the century. Enrico Fermi 1901-1954 Enrico was one of the foremost physicists of his time being the first to spilt uranium atoms and creating a chain reaction, winning the 1938 Nobel Prize for Physics, and being heavily evolved in the Manhattan project. But unlike Teller, he opposed the H bomb. "It is clear that such a weapon cannot be justified on any ethical ground.. The fact that no limits exist to the destructiveness of this weapon makes its very existence and the knowledge of its construction a danger to humanity as a whole. It is necessarily an evil thing considered in any light." Robert Oppenheimer 1904-1967 Robert was born to a wealthy New York family and became possibly the most renowned scientist ever. He was in charge of creating the A bomb, and has accordingly be dubbed the father of the A bomb. "He's a genius. A real genius... Why, Oppenheimer knows about everything. He can talk to you about anything you bring up. Well, not exactly. I guess there are a few things he doesn't know about. He doesn't know anything about sports." While watching the first A bomb test Trinity, he was reminded of a quote from Hindu scriptures. �I am become death: the destroyer of worlds." He also realized what he had created and thusly voiced strong opposition to the development of the H-bomb. Igor Kurchatov 1895-1971 Igor was born in Vladivostok, Russia, where his father was an engineer. In 1948 the head of the Soviet nuclear program asked him do do some work on their model of their hydrogen bomb. He assembled a crack team of Russia scientist including Sakharov and Vitalii Ginzburg to work on the project. They quickly discarded the programs old designs and rebuilt it with a new concept called Layer Cake, changing the design of the H bomb forever. Igor later received a Nobel Prize. Stanislaw M. Ulam 1909-1984 Ulam was born in Poland and came to the US where he helped work on the Manhattan Project. When he and Teller were proposed the idea of the H bomb, they spent hours and hours doing calculations. Ulam eventually proved Tellers model to be incorrect and about a year later stumble across a way to make it work. He came up with the idea of putting atoms bombs around the core of the hydrogen bomb to power the reaction.
NOT FOWARD BUT _________
