Shangri La (CV 38) - Naval Cruise Book

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bomb was mounted on a forty-foot steel tower-the explosion planned for 0400, July 16, 1945. Years of work and over EB2,000,000,000 in plants, equip- ment and manpower were represented in the single bomb, As the scientists turned in for a few hours' rest on the eve of the big event, the thoughts of all were on the days and nights of toil now in the past--of the future use that might be made of this formidable force. Throughout the experiments there were many prominent men who secretly hoped for some inherent physical property in mat- ter which would prevent a spontaneous release of energy. A jealous nature conspired to torment them by putting on a rain and lightning performance threatening postponement, but the thick, black layer of clouds parted in time to show a few morning stars and by four o'clock the decision was made to fire at 0530. Prone on the ground 10,000 to 17,000 yards from, the steel tower, the scientists watched as Dr. S. K. Allison called out periodic time signals. At the appointed second the clouds and mountain ranges were lighted in bold relief as a sun was born on earth. Like a gigantic hand the pressure wave moved indis- criminately and uninterruptedly across the face of the New Mexican desert, while overhead the roar of expanding gases blended with the multi-colored cloud of Atlantic bound - Panama Canal, 1946.

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Captain Cruise. forty miles below. Over 60,000 workmen crowded the west banks of the mighty river during the early construction stages, which commenced April 6, 1943. The first of its three piles started a chain-reaction cycle in September of 1944, pro- ducing plutonium from a uranium-graphite lattice. Security does not permit publication of the power level or energy output in these piles but an idea of the staggering project may be gained from the knowledge that the Clinton pile attained an energy release of about 1,800 kw., which is approximately the emis- sion necessary to produce one gram of plutonium per day. On another plateau far to the south a winding mountain road was witness to strange motor caravans carrying huge cargoes to a row of buildings which once housed a boarding school. Many of America's most famous physicists made the trek to the isolated laboratory at Los Alamos, where the Atomic Bomb was born. In the guarded depths of those buildings within thirty miles of 25 0-year- old Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dr. J, R. Oppenheimer and a host of scientists worked out the intricate mathematics, physics, and chemistry for the mechanism of an unbelievably powerful bomb. Prom March of 1943 to a final tense morning in July of 1945, these men checked and rechecked theories and estimates born of experiments with microscopic amounts of plutonium. They found no way to test-fire small amounts of plutonium or U235-it must apparently reach the critical size to undergo fission. The most likely means of an efficient explosion would be to propel as a projectile a part of the bomb against the other, achieving critical size quickly enough to enable the entire mass to undergo ission. The effectiveness is increased by the use of a tamper or a dense envelope which reflects stray neutrons back into the mass, reducing the possibility of a dud. In early July of 1945, the scientists were ready for the supreme test. Gathering in a remote section of the Alamogordo Air Base between the Sacramento Moun- tains and the San Andres Range in southern New Mexico, they prepared for the most important event in over nineteen hundred and forty-five years. Civiliza- tion stood at the threshold of a new world. Man's ingenuity had finally solved the secret of the atom and stood ready to unleash its pent-up force. The test was conducted under the direction of Dr. Oppenheimer, with Gen- eral Groves as oflicial representative for the United States Government. The Cake cutting - I4,000th landing

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