University of Central Florida STARS PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements 1-1-1945 Brief guide to the atomic age Richard Martin Fagley Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Book is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Recommended Citation Fagley, Richard Martin, "Brief guide to the atomic age" (1945). PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements. 826. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/prism/826 I BRIEF GUfDE TO THE ' Richard M. Foqley Brief Guide to The Atomic Age About the Authw Amm ML'FACZBYgraduated from Oberlln Col- lege i 1932 (wlth a Phi Beta uppa kq on I hb watch *I, hc Entaad the Yalt DhMtp j School, whm~in addition to m&hg a mmbk . record ar a student, hc hh writing W. HtisammnbcrofaboutaIlrbeqpuhk onemnthbkofwbprp~abtafnnber worldpwqe,andhe~drracmuchwritbgia . that &Id HL dentilk lIde inter- cDabEea him tp udcmtand- kom than mw the . mcaaing of atamtc pm. At~thtb4ntbcsWottbeF~ .. ' ~#idafChurcbadCM8th~rrrp-.; fng aa the Council's reaetq of the o -on a Juat and Durable Pearr. ~riefGuide to The Atomic Age RICHARD M, FAGLEY m;~16, 1945-that's one date to m memh. It is pmbably.the mat im- J portant date for the past nine- centuri,es, since &e time when Jesus af M-th wras nailed to a ma but tri. umphed owr death, adP group of Il[ie disciples joined in the ht Christian church. It is the date w+ you were plunged into a world sa merent from theoneyouhawknuwnthatitwilltake you and the rest of us yeam just to dfs- cwerthe*efuz. Maybe you were one of those who . Popedthat,whenywgotba&hm~ wars, thinga would be the ame as when pleft. Of~*IIaope~gou~that p are finding the same btloved the--f&,*sarne 9- I I familirrt #ens that. you've k3l dream& ing abut. gut the -Id won't really h the same; it can't be. Something xpew hau ' b'@d, lu,I- that it may affect your lrfe m a thoueand Merit ways,- dthough it mybc mme timb&~ethisnew~~to mnrkes~~eyorramsaeaadfe&L Ifyoamttolteepupwi&Ebffnew world in which gou live, YOU haYC ?heArorkAp~r.mr*CHohaq That wan heday when a little grwp af &miam and soldiers,who XIOW war b;a quation mark a hir hddm 8etd€afairly~bombmsunted.on~ ' ~mwerinNcwMdm's~The explosion dug s huge entar adheated the saad so hot that it melted; it lit up thedy Wghterthmn0anday;it kn&d down men heand a half miles. my;it I ahoofctheearthoverageatkn= The ' steeltowerwwtupinapuffofgaaTbt wasthedaywhenmanfirstsu~in ~thgtbesnur.Thatwastbeday.when *tist8 were kat able to pve thy cottld split atoms in a big way. That was thedaywhentheAmmicAgewaabaaa, Of~~da~haveplayeda pmintPringinginthisneWaa,anda ~mignt~mtrdefaaontosanotber d them as the big by. Tbm&was the day in 18% when Hemi Bapdin ~di~thattbekment~ niumpeldenougba~~to ' makeanhqmdononaphotogapbic pla*m~*Claiesontheit. ssmchfwradiam. There'mthdayin 1905 whai Albert Ehteh h itk Ger- manyLworked out a mathmatiad qw I. tion shaving how mass and energy GUI be eonvd into each other, and what an amalrjnP amount of energy is rqr& sented by a tiny atom so small that no mi-pe ansee it. There was tbe day in 1919 when Ernest Ruthufd in Eng- land, succeded in chipping tbe atom. Danish, French, Italian, German, Rm sian, British, and American dentists db covered new steps on the way to the atom. ic bomb. In 1989 Hahn and S- split the atom wide pen with'stadng mula Them were also August 6 and 8, 1945, when two bbswerc dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, revealing the paning-of atoanic power in warfare. And ! 6 w ~~bercmp),'~otha&~swhenmmd~-' cowx how to slow down alomic expb ! ~ioluenough to put them to pmt- 1 : u&& : : t~km@k~~oto# But July 16,lW islikelytoremain 1 tht big day. That was when amqic power entered the stage of history in a dramatic i way and began to change himory ia., . Everysu~intheunivem,eofaxas ' we&low,ismadeupd~tlIny~,' each of which is equivalent po a latge amount of f3Iqy. w of them are quite dmple; ohare eompliated and ' hvy* Each di&rent '"eltment''4 rn h- iron, gold-has iu own kind of atom. Chemical "compounI," such as water, arc composed of "moledes" in whi& atom of ddfesmt efanenta are ~*(~m~~ofwaterhtwo atomsofhyQrogenandoneofwrygea) ~a~and~are'k~- ingbl*tbatforraall#bs~UndZ recently, it was supped chat atom maM not be .divided-that is, tbe]r wem not 7 thought to h made of anytbing,maW. Man bas gdually Iearned how tu separate and combine the vdm sub. 8- to make nature mehis need& Itbeganwhetlthemvemanmadebiir most irnprtmt dhavmy: how to mak waod bum by rubbing sticks together a anikiqg stones. This first dhmery led step by step to the mdustrioll civilidon in which we live. It tOO). a long time before mao Learned dae.nanymof fire. Atfkahetlsed.it to keep himself warm, and he learneQ how to mt But it mkmany tEbo&h I 8 - , obyears~h~ed~bowrmmt3t mpp" ore and make better W and weapons than Bis chipped m pWx$, . atone in8-ta Sis thwsasd lyeara ' , agotheStmeAgtlqantobesucceded by the Bronze Age; and then about a tb~dyearsbdoreQhrist~&e. - hnAp, which laaOed up until July 16, 1945. ThtoughalltheaeJo~lgpiodsof~ tlaan has becn qarating and -bin- hg atmu and ~1~ in various , ful ways, but he hasn't ldh- tinhered .sPiththe~cs~~ofthuatomit- df,except in alrmaIl way. Now-he has mdddyanuxeedadindoingit. Thatis ' . * L 9 L 1.7 dm. ! why scientists regard this new develop ment as th most important scientific d& #werysiner:manlithisfirstfire. Thatis why we now live in a new age, the Atomic m* Atom an rmll hut mighty Let's look more closely at this mighty midget with which man is kginning to change the world. 'Zook'' is hardly the word, aince we aptsee an atom but can onfy imagine it hmt the way it hhavek 10 Ithbeensaidthat,ifyoublewupa dropobwatcruntil,itwastheskofthc whole mid, then a moWe of wed atoms enlarged to the same degrte would be the ake of an orange, Yet the atom, this ape& of conmumtad power, is not a ~objcct.~thmghiti9itiacm- pwred of parrides much snlauex.,lt morelktwfarsystemsvitha~- sun, or "nudeus," with a positive el-. trid charge, mmaded by di-t particla like planets, ded Earryiag qtivedqp that qual and bahce the charge on the nudeus. The nucleus iMia made up of "proma' d "neutront~'~protans cafig; &e positive dmp. The mumany no charrre, but are part of the weight of the atom. In the case of camin havy ele- ments, such as radium and dum, some of the @des in the nudew tend to flg off at great speed. ?%me el- are "radi~tive." Eimteh'~equation had lhovn what an amazing amount of energy is aam dated with the atomic nudeus. !bme of 11 ciallybykndingprotonaand- out of the nudeu&hbdhg it with bigh@pmiderr,&=aSp tons taat they gat from natd mrrca fmaKampkradiunqorfPomvcry~ genius anid dwica, of which the cyclotron b one.. But these parti& are 4LU charged with electricitp; and since the atom nudeus is similarly the "brtltees" mdygot thmllgh ua them The paoblemwms~~lvedwhenrhcp~~*., . ~farballets,fQrcBep~no The bullet necdtd impwimeni, h& ever, It went rn ktthat it might @ &rough many atomic "soh aptmiis'' be fomitppoddhittbetrvgetaade~~~odt, it. To get the mztximm &, scientists badmfind4'~Iilre~or heavy water, to slow down the neutron b&t, That did it. But bitliom upbillb of atoms hsrd to be aplit to get a dypow&d cg- , plosion. The neutron bulIets, even when slowed down, wouldn't hit enough atom at the metime to produce such a tre- mendous &t. Some forms of uranium provided the amww. When some of these atoms were hit by the neutron%they not only broke up but they also gave off other neutmna that hit many additional atoms, &us statting a chain reaction, like pim of gunpowder exploding one another. -Only this exlplosion waa infinitely greater than he most potent TNT. The two bomb drop* on Jltpamse ah were still in the infant stage. If dam is an- other war, the atomic bombs may ex+ ~pmsmtbombsasmuchasthebIock- buster exceeds the gtenada airmen dropped by hand in World War I. So, fo~bettcrorwrors~, we have mad t@e thPesbold of a new era. How long will it last? The Stone Age lasted £or a thowand cendes, the Brmm Age for more tban twenty centuries, and the Iron I Age fm nearly thirty oenturiee. How long will the Atomic Age endure? It is fitting that the soldier pcialisu who worked on the project wear a quation mark on !- their ahoulder patch. Let us Imk first at the military as- of the problem. General H. H. Arnold, . chief of the Army air form, said at a preus conference the othm day that I&- eu more &dent and effective than the V-2's are coming dong. Over a year ago, he said, bomh were bei guided @rough television by a plane fifteen dmaway. Already there are control devices for heracket bomb in the ex- perimental ~tagethat will make them "home8*simply by reaction to light, heat, or metal in the target. "Use th-" he said,, "with the adcbornbe and the new plan- and you get a Buck conception of war whi4 is right on our thresholb" Cend hldvent on to predica . new atomic bomb "more destructive than the wildat nigh- of the imPgi- don," and rocket8 no powerfut and bt made on targets of a mile aquare or 1- at any part of the wosId., from any guided E+ accumtely chat "exact hi# - partaoftheworId." Thisddmeaa,he .