[Boatanchors] Hallicrafters and A-Bombs (Hello, NSA and HSA!)

[rbethman]

List,

Absolutely NONE of this is NOT in the Public Domain!  One simply has to 
go to your local library and checkout the Book(s)!

Little Boy was an ingenious yet simple "gadget".  It was a simple cannon 
barrel with one end ringed with Uranium, and welded in place with enough 
heavy steel to withstand the "Critical Mass" component being propelled 
with a military gunpowder based propellant that sent it into the 
remaining mass of Uranium.

It was never tested prior to use.  Early tests using a platform with 
precisely machined Uranium cubes with a single "chute" to allow another 
"cube" simply dropped by gravity through the others, determined the 
exact amount to become "prompt critical".

This device, along with a number of others are in the Los Alamos 
National Laboratory Museum.

This was one of two methods described as "Tickling the Dragon's Tail.".

Fat Man was previously tested at the Trinity site test.

They are as different as possibly can.  Fat Man was a very complex 
design that required segments of multiple layers of different explosives 
that "acted" like a lens in the focusing of the High Explosive 
components of Composition B and Baritol.

The added complexity required that ALL the segments were required to be 
initiated precisely at the same moment, or it would not work.

Regards,
Bob - N0DGN