And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Cool historical photo, it is the black and white photography, rather exceptional I think. Think that is one of the first air deliverable fission-fusion-fission devices. The gadget was what they used for the Trinity test, a plutonium fission implosion device, near half the size of the above pictured. Could be a non nuclear test piece for proving out practices before using the real deal. High yield devices back in the early era were considerably large contraptions, the fusion devices even larger. From the books on their history contend in any case.
The “Gadget” device detonated at the Trinity site involved two explosions: first a conventional TNT explosion and then a nuclear explosion, if the chain reaction started by the first explosion was maintained. The Jumbo device was designed by the X2-A section of the Los Alamos laboratory to act as a failsafe device for the Trinity test explosion. General Groves spent $12 million on Jumbo, a steel cylinder 10 feet in diameter and 25 feet long. Its walls were 14 inches thick and the entire device weighed 200 tons.
Jumbo was designed to contain the Gadget and prevent the loss of the precious plutonium in the case that the conventional explosion succeeded, but the nuclear explosion failed. It took a combination of rail and a specially constructed 64-wheel trailer to deliver Jumbo to Trinity. However, by the time of the actual Trinity test, Manhattan Project officials were confident enough in the plutonium bomb and secure enough in the stream of plutonium coming from Hanford, that Jumbo was deemed unnecessary. Jumbo was suspended from a tower during the test, but it survived the nuclear explosion.
General Groves was concerned that Congress would criticize him for spending $12 million on what was essentially a white elephant, so he ordered Jumbo destroyed. However, eight 500-pound bombs only succeeded in blowing the ends of it. The remains of Jumbo can still be seen at the Trinity site.
Cool historical photo, it is the black and white photography, rather exceptional I think. Think that is one of the first air deliverable fission-fusion-fission devices. The gadget was what they used for the Trinity test, a plutonium fission implosion device, near half the size of the above pictured. Could be a non nuclear test piece for proving out practices before using the real deal. High yield devices back in the early era were considerably large contraptions, the fusion devices even larger. From the books on their history contend in any case.
ReplyDeleteThis is a photo of "Jumbo", a containment device.
ReplyDeleteThe “Gadget” device detonated at the Trinity site involved two explosions: first a conventional TNT explosion and then a nuclear explosion, if the chain reaction started by the first explosion was maintained. The Jumbo device was designed by the X2-A section of the Los Alamos laboratory to act as a failsafe device for the Trinity test explosion. General Groves spent $12 million on Jumbo, a steel cylinder 10 feet in diameter and 25 feet long. Its walls were 14 inches thick and the entire device weighed 200 tons.
Jumbo was designed to contain the Gadget and prevent the loss of the precious plutonium in the case that the conventional explosion succeeded, but the nuclear explosion failed. It took a combination of rail and a specially constructed 64-wheel trailer to deliver Jumbo to Trinity. However, by the time of the actual Trinity test, Manhattan Project officials were confident enough in the plutonium bomb and secure enough in the stream of plutonium coming from Hanford, that Jumbo was deemed unnecessary. Jumbo was suspended from a tower during the test, but it survived the nuclear explosion.
General Groves was concerned that Congress would criticize him for spending $12 million on what was essentially a white elephant, so he ordered Jumbo destroyed. However, eight 500-pound bombs only succeeded in blowing the ends of it. The remains of Jumbo can still be seen at the Trinity site.
Cool info, thanks.
DeleteI remember seeing film of the Gadget being hoisted up the tower. Looked so homemade primitive, like the darn thing was held together with duct tape!
https://ahf.nuclearmuseum.org/ahf/history/jumbo/
ReplyDeleteI need that.
ReplyDelete