What was developed during the manhattan project

As a result of progress at Oak Ridge and metallurgical and chemical refinements on plutonium that improved implosion's chances, the nine months between July and April saw the American bomb project progress from doubtful to probable. The August 1 delivery date for the "Little Boy" uranium bomb right certainly appeared more likely than it had when Groves briefed George Marshall. There would be no implosion weapons in the first half of as Groves had hoped, but developments in April boded well for the scheduled summer test of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb.

And recent calculations provided by Hans Bethe's theoretical group gave hope that the yield for the first weapon would be in the vicinity of 5, tons of TNT rather than the 1,ton estimate provided in fall Previous Next. Sources and notes for this page. The text for this page was adapted from, and portions were taken directly from the Office of History and Heritage Resources publications: F. Hewlett and Oscar E. Anderson, Jr.

Atomic Energy Commission, , , Click here for information on the animation of the first 0. The photograph of "D-Day" is courtesy the National Archives. The photograph of Robert Oppenheimer in front of a blackboard is reproduced by permission of the J. That is, it was not enough simply to start a chain reaction in a critical mass; it was necessary to start one in a mass that would release the greatest possible amount of energy before it was destroyed in the explosion.

In addition to calculations on uranium and plutonium fission, chain reactions, and critical and effective masses, work needed to be done on the ordnance aspects of the bomb, or the "Gadget" as it came to be known.

Two subcritical masses of fissionable material would have to come together to form a supercritical mass for an explosion to occur. Furthermore, they had to come together in a precise manner and at high speed.

Measures also had to be taken to ensure that the highly unstable subcritical masses did not predetonate because of spontaneously emitted neutrons or neutrons produced by alpha particles reacting with lightweight impurities.

The chances of predetonation could be reduced by purification of the fissionable material and by using a high-speed firing system capable of achieving velocities of 3, feet per second. A conventional artillery method of firing one subcritical mass into the other above was under consideration for uranium, but this method would work for plutonium only if absolute purification of plutonium could be achieved.

A "gun-type" design of this sort was thus designed for uranium. Unable to solve the purification problem, however, bomb designers feared that they would have to turn instead to the relatively unknown implosion method right for plutonium.

With implosion, symmetrical shockwaves directed inward would compress a subcritical mass of plutonium into a smaller, now-critical sphere. Caption: Fat man. Finally, the Manhattan Project remains to this day a controversial subject. In , however, the U. Database of Manhattan Project Veterans. Manhattan Project Timeline. Articles on Manhattan Project History. Manhattan Project Key Documents. AHF News and Articles. Browse our collection of oral histories with workers, families, service members, and more about their experiences in the Manhattan Project.

Skip to main content. The Manhattan Project. History Page Type:. Manhattan Project History. Friday, May 12, Preliminary Organization The story of the Manhattan Project began in , when German scientists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann inadvertently discovered nuclear fission. Preliminary Research Caption:. An artist's rendition of Chicago Pile The famous photo of the Trinity test, taken by Jack Aeby.