blert@232 responded to 227
“…Anyhow, If I can find the name I’ll post a refutation to every point you’ve made…”
Samuel A. Goudsmit, perhaps? Or Boris T. Pash, possibly?
Yes, as you point out, the Germans had failed to develop the equivalent of the Met Lab carbon pile. They seem not to have rejected the centrifuge in any direct way – rather they never seriously considered enrichment technology at all.
And yes, as I mentioned at 227, a group of scientists based at the Met Lab, acted as you describe. Their leader was Leo Szilard who felt responsible for the bomb since it was his letter (signed, but not written by Einstein) that prodded FDR to create the Manhattan project.
It’s interesting that your guy (whether Goudsmit, Pash, or someone else working for Pash) would emphasize the shortcoming of the German technology relative to that of the Met Lab, without mentioning other shortcomings that would relate to work at Oak Ridge or Los Alamos. That suggests to me that he was familiar with the Met Lab (which focused on the basic physics) but not with the weapons related aspects of the program.
My guess is that your guy was accurately describing what he observed at the Met Lab in the spring and early summer of 1945 but that Oak Ridge, Hanford and Los Alamos were invisible to him. As you said, he had a grasp for the basic physics (which had been explored at the Met Lab) but was not familiar with the secret aspects of the Manhattan project (which were at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Hanford). His error, which you repeat and to which I respond, was to attribute Met Lab attitudes to those at the serious weapons program at Hanford and Los Alamos.
Note how the timeline disproves his claim about delays. The Fat Man concept was proven in the Trinity test on July 16. The first Fat Man weapon was exploded at Nagasaki on August 9. That’s roughly 3 weeks from proof of concept to application. Where is the delay?
More – the Los Alamos package for the second Fat Man weapon was scheduled to arrive on August 13 w/o a plutonium core, with the plutonium core due by August 20 (or 24th depending on the source). No evidence of delay there – the pace was determined by the plutonium production rate at Hanford.
Still more – by October 60 Fat Man units, most of them waiting for cores to be provided from Hanford, were in inventory at Los Alamos.
Bottom line: my guess is that the entire issue between you and me stems from your guy’s confusion of the Met Lab attitudes with those at Los Alamos and Hanford, which were off limits to him.
