The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Author:Richard Rhodes
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks

The target sphere could be simply welded to the muzzle of a cannon; then the cylinder, which might weigh about a hundred pounds, could be fired up the barrel like a shell:

The highest muzzle velocity available in U.S. Army guns is one whose bore is 4.7 inches and whose barrel is 21 feet long. This gives a 50 lb. projectile a muzzle velocity of 3150 ft/sec. The gun weighs 5 tons. It appears that the ratio of projectile mass to gun mass is about constant for different guns so a 100 lb. projectile would require a gun weighing about 10 tons.1798

For a mechanism eight times lighter or with double the effective muzzle velocity they could weld two guns together at their muzzles and fire two projectiles into each other. Synchronization would be a problem with such a design and efficiency might require four critical masses instead of two, a demand which would significantly delay delivering a usable bomb.

Serber also described more speculative arrangements: sliced ellipsoidal core-tamper assemblies like halves of hard-boiled eggs that slid together; wedge-shaped quarters of core/tamper like sections of a quartered apple mounted on a ring. That was an odd and striking design, sketched in the mimeographed Primer as probably on a blackboard before, and it did not go unnoticed. “If explosive material were distributed around the ring and fired the pieces would be blown inward to form a sphere”:1799

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