US Army Air Force

"The Shatterer of Worlds" in a small box ...

US Government/Harold M. Agnew family collection.

A smiling Harold M. Agnew of the "Manhattan Project" snapped with a small box-like box that was, actually, the nuclear core of the second operationally employed atomic bomb, "Fat Man", dropped on Nagasaki on 9 August, 1945. The spool-like objects projecting from all sides of the "box" are the terminals for the tube-like "barrels" that launched detention charges into the core from all sides, generating the critical event that produced the explosion. "Fat Man" differed quite radically from the Hiroshima bomb, "Fat Man". First of all, its effective element was plutonium rather than uranium. Following from that, because the Los Alamos team viewed the "linear", gun-like single ignition mechanism used in "Little Boy" would be impractical in a plutonium bomb, they devised a system in which the core would be surrounded by an array of detonator tubes designed to propel ignition charges into the plutonium core from all sides. The bomb proved to be every bit as effective as "Little Boy"; only the relatively hilly territory around Nagasaki prevented its detonation from producing as many casualties as the Hiroshima bomb. The carrier of the device did not, it would appear, suffer any immediate consequences from humping around boxes of plutonium and, indeed, from a long-term intimate relationship with nuclear materials. Post-war, he took his doctorate and went on to enjoy an overseeing role over the US nuclear weapons programme for many years and a distinguished career in public service. He died in 2013, aged 92. The cause of death was chronic leukemia - it is just possible that the "glow in the dark" stuff caught up with him in the end. Best regards, JR.