August 6, 1945; ATOMIC BOMB STRIKES JAPAN:

THIS WAS REPORTED TODAY, AUGUST 6, 1945:

(E. T. and shipmates were in the port of Sanfracisco while thier troop ship,
the S S  Cape Henlopen, was being repared and reprovisioned for a return to
the war zone.  Most all troops that boarded for the return home were
greatfull and felt that the atomic bomb saved their lives.)

Comments on the news

I am appalled at the possibilities of this atomic weapon.

From now on war must be made impossible if the human race is to survive.

With this weapon man can destroy himself.

I wonder if the plant at Pasco, Washington, is at work on this bomb.

OGDEN CITY, UTAH, MONDAY EVENING. AUGUST 6. 1945

Missile Is More

Powerful Than
20,000 Tons TNT

Momentous Discovery Harnesses the Power Of the Universe; U. S. is Now Prepared To Obliterate Nippons, President Declares

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (AP)—The United States army air force has released on the Japs an atomic bomb containing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT.

It produces more than 2,000 times the blast of the largest bomb ever used before.

The announcement of the development was made in. a statement by President Truman released by the White House today.

The bomb was dropped 16 hours ago on Hiro Shima, an important Japanese army base.

The president said that the bomb has "added a new and revolutionary increase in destruction" on the Japanese

Flash

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 6 (UP)

Here is the power of the atomic bomb: One bomb equals five trainloads of TNT or two cargo shiploads, or 6,600 Flying Fortress loads during their first strikes against Berlin, or four times the weight of our heaviest day's assault against the entire Japanese home islands, or 40 times hte weight of the biggest- assault of the London blitz. That's one bomb.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UP)—

There was a faint earth murmur on the seismograph at Georgetown university last night at six-twenty-two p.m., the same day the first atomic bomb was dropped upon Japan from an American plane.

NEW YORK, Aug. 6 (AP) —

If the Germans started first with atomic bombs their lead was probably only a few days. The atomic explosive possibilities, spring unexpectedly from calculations by a German Jewish woman
mathematician, Lize Meitner.

Within two weeks the whole scientific world knew of her theory and had verified it. Hitler might have had a few weeks start. His first act was to set a large number of physicists to work on the ideas Lize Meitner had turned loose.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UP)

The man who directed for the army the two billion dollar job of discovering the new atomic bomb was Maj. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, formerly of Pasadena, Calif., and now living here, the war department revealed today.

For the past three years, Groves has held the title of commanding officer of the "Manhattan engineer district," the name given the project to help keep it secret.

- WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UP)

The first knowledge that American physicists had begun to corral atomic energy—possibly the greatest scientific discovery of all time—came to light in the spring of 1940. They extracted a minute quantity of a. substance which they called U-235—a close relative of uranium. It was hailed then' . as a powerful potential weapon, for war and equally useful in peacetime. Scientists at that time concluded: One pound of U-235 would contain as much energy as 15,000 tons of TNT, or 300 carloads of 50 tons each. If this one pound of 6-235 exploded within l/10,000ths of a second, as does TNT, the pressure produced would be of 100,000,000 atmospheres. This would be about 1,000,000 times the pressure produced by TNT or nitroglycerine, they estimated then.

 

 

Atomic Materials

Assembled in
Big secret Plant

RICHLAND, Wash., Aug. 6 (AP)

Materials for the new atomic bomb are being assembled in a huge super-secret government plant near here, where workers who never knew what they were making produced the compound by operating complicated dials from behind thick concrete safety walls.

Some of the details of the secret project were revealed for the first time today after ' President Truman announced the first bomb was dropped on the Japs.

Not until the official announcement, the government said, did any of the 17,000 workers have any idea of the nature of the startling new product.

The manufacturing area, a 400,000-acre, guarded section 30 miles from here, is sub-divided into smaller areas, each covering miles of ground.

Three Enormous Buildings

One of the main areas contains three enormous structures where the material is produced. The second contains three huge chemical plants where the material is purified and concentrated. The third contains raw materials.

One of the most difficult problems, officials said, was designing manufacturing processes which would permit the fantastically powerful explosive to be made safely. Plants were designed so that all the complicated operations were performed by remote control behind heavy concrete walls.

Safety Precautions

So complete were the safety precautions, officials added, that they protected workers "against even the fear of danger."

Construction of the plants was rushed in greatest secrecy by thousands of workmen recruited from many states. At one time, during construction, 45,000 persons were employed.

The project is located in central Washington state, between the Cascade mountains and the Columbia
river. Although residents of this little sagebrush-surrounded hamlet knew the 'secret project was something highly important, they. were as much surprised as the rest of the world when President Truman announced they had been producing atomic bomb materials.

Atomic Bomb

Is Made In
Three States

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (AP)—

The atomic bomb disclosed by President Truman today was developed at factories in Tennessee, Washington state and New Mexico. Mr. Truman in his announcement said that from 65,000 to
125,000 workers were employed on the project at Oak Ridge near Knoxville, Tenn., at –Richland near Pasco, Wash., and at an unnamed installation 'near Santa Fe, N. M.

He said the work was so secret that most of the employees did not know the character of it.

 Stimson Lauds Firms

On Atomic Bombs

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UP)—

Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson today revealed a-partial, list of industrial concerns which contributed "so signally" to the success of the atomic bomb. The Du Pont De Nemours Co. designed and constructed- the big Hanford. installations in Washington state and operates them, he said.

A special subsidiary of the M, W. Kellogg Co. of New York designed one of the plants at Clinton, Tenn., which was constructed by the J. A. Jones Co. and is operated by the Union Carbide and

Carbon Co. Other commercial firms listed were the Stone & Webster Engineering corporation, Allis-Chalmers, Chrysler, General Electric and Westinghouse

 

***************************