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2 unusual facts about John Hasbrouck van Vleck


John Hasbrouck Van Vleck

The committee's important contribution (originating with Rose) was a reduction in the size of the firing gun for the Little Boy atomic bomb, a concept which eliminated additional design-weight and sped up production of the bomb for its eventual release over Hiroshima.

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However it was not employed for the Fat Man bomb at Nagasaki, which relied on implosion of a plutonium shell to reach critical mass.


Pocono Conference

New participants were Niels Bohr, Aage Bohr, Paul Dirac, Walter Heitler, Eugene Wigner and Gregor Wentzel; while Kramers, MacInnes, Nordsieck, Pauling and Van Vleck who were at the Shelter Island Conference were absent.


see also