Who invented the atomic bomb?

Who invented the atomic bomb?

On august 2, 1939 just before the beginning of World War II, Albert Einstein wrote to then President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the efforts in Nazi Germany to purify uranium-235, which could be used to build an atomic bomb. It was shortly after this, that the United States Government began the serious undertaking known then only as ‘The Manhattan Project’. This project was committed to expediting research that would produce a viable atomic bomb.

More than $2 billion was spent during the history of the Manhattan Project from 1939 to 1945. The formulas for refining uranium and putting together a working atomic bomb were together a working atomic bomb were created, and seen to their logical ends by some of the greatest minds of our time. Chief among the people who unleashed the power of the atom was J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the project from conception of completion.

Finally, the day came when all at Los Alamos would find out if ‘The Gadget’ (code-named as such during its development) was going to be the colossal dud of the century or perhaps an end to the war. It all came down to fateful morning in midsummer, 1945.

At 5:29:45 on July 16, 1945, in white blaze that stretched from the basin of the Jemez mountains in northern New Mexico to the still-dark skies, ‘The Gadget’ ushered in the Atomic Age. The light of the explosion then turned orange as the atomic fireball began shooting upwards at 360 feet per second, reddening and pulsing as it cooled.