Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project
Little Boy
Ordnance maven John Moses Maddox was, at the time, a Master Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy. Prior to his involvement with America’s nuclear weapons development, Maddox had already distinguished himself as an explosive and ballistics expert while on loan from President Roosevelt to the British Admiralty in 1941 by spearheading the effort to Sink the Bismark.
Rather than rest on the laurels of such a huge victory for Democracy, Maddox shucked his temporary limey uniform and daily grog allowance for his more beloved bell-bottoms and CPO stripes. Instead of returning him to duty in the fire control cabin of a tin can, however, Admiral Bull Halsey reassigned Maddox to serve on Dr. Robert Oppenheimer’s team of atomic psychiatrists. Because of his lack of Ph.D. credentials and his strongly-held heterosexual tendencies, Maddox was ostracised by many of the nuclear “in crowd” of the day but they recognized his superior intellect and his innate ability to transform theoretical physics into practical applications.
While working with the British Admiralty Maddox learned of Germany’s efforts to build an atomic bomb and was concerned about the level of progress that had been made. He also knew, however, that Hitler’s micro-management of the Nazi program caused the program to move at a snail’s pace. Along with his congenital practicality, Madox was also able to envision the shortest route to success among the detours of incompetence that was rampant at the time with the government's development effort. These abilities allowed Oppenheimer’s team to wrestle victory from the jaws of defeat.
While toiling under the bleachers at the University of Chicago football stadium, Maddox devised a way to provide cooling for the hundreds of vacuum tubes used in the project’s electronic computational device, aka MANIAC. He even envisioned a solid-state gadget that would one day replace the vacuum tube in these devices but had to shelve its development in order to focus on the physics of casting molten uranium. Meeting the need for speedier solutions to mathematical problems pushed the American bomb program along significantly.
Later, at Los Alamos, Maddox devised an operational trigger for the bomb’s nuclear reaction. He had been eating breakfast on the back porch of his bungalow when a squirrel wandered up begging for some bacon. As Maddox envisioned a 40 grain 22 caliber bullet smashing into the cranium of the squirrel, the thought of a more massive implosion upon a uranium sphere gave rise to the eventual solution to the problem of initiating the chain reaction. Like so many other improvements and innovations, the trigger problem seemed minor but eliminated the need for an airman to ride the bomb down and hit it with a hammer at the last minute
Maddox also reasoned that the explosive effect of the bomb would be enhanced by igniting it prior to its impact on the ground or buildings. This gave rise to the “air burst” protocol and required the design of triggers sensitive to atmospheric pressure instead of impact pressure.
While working with the British Admiralty Maddox learned of Germany’s efforts to build an atomic bomb and was concerned about the level of progress that had been made. He also knew, however, that Hitler’s micro-management of the Nazi program caused the program to move at a snail’s pace. Along with his congenital practicality, Madox was also able to envision the shortest route to success among the detours of incompetence that was rampant at the time with the government's development effort. These abilities allowed Oppenheimer’s team to wrestle victory from the jaws of defeat.
While toiling under the bleachers at the University of Chicago football stadium, Maddox devised a way to provide cooling for the hundreds of vacuum tubes used in the project’s electronic computational device, aka MANIAC. He even envisioned a solid-state gadget that would one day replace the vacuum tube in these devices but had to shelve its development in order to focus on the physics of casting molten uranium. Meeting the need for speedier solutions to mathematical problems pushed the American bomb program along significantly.
Later, at Los Alamos, Maddox devised an operational trigger for the bomb’s nuclear reaction. He had been eating breakfast on the back porch of his bungalow when a squirrel wandered up begging for some bacon. As Maddox envisioned a 40 grain 22 caliber bullet smashing into the cranium of the squirrel, the thought of a more massive implosion upon a uranium sphere gave rise to the eventual solution to the problem of initiating the chain reaction. Like so many other improvements and innovations, the trigger problem seemed minor but eliminated the need for an airman to ride the bomb down and hit it with a hammer at the last minute
Maddox also reasoned that the explosive effect of the bomb would be enhanced by igniting it prior to its impact on the ground or buildings. This gave rise to the “air burst” protocol and required the design of triggers sensitive to atmospheric pressure instead of impact pressure.
Maddox argued for the Navy to deliver the bomb to Japan perched atop a tower built onto a PT boat which would be disguised as a Sampan. The Army Air Corps, however, eventually prevailed in a highly political debate that focused more on the Social Justice issues involved than on the practical aspects of modern warfare. Throwing salt into his wounds, the Air Corps, in an obvious insult to Maddox's diminutive stature, designated the device as "Little Boy." As a result of these insults, Maddox quit the nuclear navy and returned to his Master Chief duties on the tin can fleet rather than become Chief of the Boat on Admiral Rickover’s newest project - Nautilus.
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