Who invented the atomic bomb? A small group of scientists started working on the concept of radioactivity and later published papers on alpha particles. The idea of atomic bombs was then brought to life by Albert Einstein, who was part of a group of scientists that later included Leo Szilard, Otto Hahn, Michael Polenyi, Walter Bothe, Lise Meitner, and Hantaro Nagaoka.
It was the idea of two men that eventually led to the development of the atomic bomb. In the late 1930s, scientists from Europe migrated to the United States and brought news of the invention. These scientists tried to warn the U.S. government of the danger that such a weapon could bring. They also approached Albert Einstein, who was a devoted pacifist. Einstein was reluctant to contact the government but became swayed by fears that Nazi Germany would be first to develop the weapon.
The development of nuclear weapons began under the presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. However, he decided not to tell the Soviet Union about the technology. This policy continued under the presidency of Harry Truman. While he did not share specific details about the weapon, Truman did mention the existence of a destructive bomb to Stalin. Truman wanted to avoid a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Truman also knew that the Soviet Union would enter the war and shape the post-war balance of power.
The discovery of fission was made by German scientists in 1938. It occurs when the nucleus of an atom splits into two equal parts. The fission releases neutrons, which in turn break apart more atoms. A chain reaction occurs and significant energy is released in a millionth of a second. German scientists believed that fission could be used to start an explosive chain reaction in a uranium bomb.
In the 1940s, the Soviet Union put its industrial might behind the development of atomic weapons. They hadn’t yet scouted uranium deposits in the Soviet Union. Instead, they relied on penal labor to mine old deposits in Czechoslovakia. They eventually began their search for domestic uranium deposits, but only after World War II was over. This era was marked by the first tests of the bomb and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After the war, J. Robert Oppenheimer was appointed director of the Los Alamos Laboratory. After the invasion of Poland, Oppenheimer was selected to administer the Manhattan Project laboratory. The Manhattan Project was an experiment carried out by the U.S. Army to harness atomic energy for military use. Oppenheimer oversaw the scientific end of the Manhattan Project in 1942. It is still unknown if he personally designed the first atomic bomb.
The first nuclear weapon was a gun-type fission bomb. The gun would shoot a subcritical mass into another subcritical mass, which would trigger an uncontrollable chain reaction and cause the desired explosion. The Fat Man plutonium implosion bomb was also contemplated in 1942. The two inventors’ efforts and discoveries are important for human survival. So, who invented the nuclear bomb? And what were its benefits?
The development of nuclear weapons began in the early 1900s when German intelligence found that the United States and Great Britain were working on atomic energy. During the war, the Germans decided not to build their own atomic bomb until the end of the war. It was only in 1945 that the United States managed to build two bombs, and President Harry S. Truman chose to use the bomb against Japan. There are now 27,000 bombs around the world.
The first successful chain reaction occurred during the Second World War. A new hope for the atomic bomb was given when physicists, led by Enrico Fermi, created the first controlled nuclear laboratory. These scientists worked hard until 1945, until the first atomic bomb was made. It was not until 1945, however, that the first nuclear bomb was finally developed. But the question is, who invented the first atomic bomb?