143 ATOM BOMB , Invention Of all weapons of destruction invented by aciciKV tj to date a548 the most destructive is the

Atom Bomb. Many long years of scientific research led up to this invention. These researches were first started in Germany about the beginning of the last war and the atom bomb was first invented by a German scientists. Olio Hahn, who was awarded the Nobel Prize. The German scientists were afterwards engaged by America and a huge laboratory in several square miles of ground was set up by the Government of the United-Stales in the Tennesse Valley. Researches were carried on here very secretly and in 1944-45 the scientists succeeded in manufacturing the Atom Bomb. It was used for the first time against Japan and two Atom Bomb were thrown from bombers on two cities of Japan in August, 1945, which were almost entirely devastated. The Japanese found that it was impossible to hold out against this new weapon of destruction and thought it best to surrender. In fact it was the Atom Bomb which brought the last war to an end. Scientific Principle The principle on which the manufacture of the Atom Bomb was based had been known for a long lime to physicisls. The atom is the ultimate non-divisible particle of matter. It consists of electrons and neutrons. The scicntUiK had discovered long before thai if an atom could be split up and iite electrons and neutrons liberated it would produce incalculable amounts of energy in heal and light. This liberation of heat and light out of an atom is known as radio activity. The splitting of an atom therefore was a problem at which the scientists had worked in different laboratories of Europe specially in Germany. It became successful at last in the huge American Laboratory 'of Tennesse Valley. Laboratory This laboratory was creeled at a cost which ran into several billions of dollars. A whole colony of scientists among whom there were several Nobel Pri/e-winners, ihcir assistants, research workers, engineering arid mechanical experts and manufacturers had to be set up. The colony way strictly guarded by sentries and leakage of information about the work carried on there was most carefully stopped. When the bomb was actually manufactured, an experiment was made with it in a desert of Mexico. The bomb was dropped in the i'iKii i 549

I midst of the desert from an aeroplane and the scientists took station at safe distances to watch with long-range binoculars and telescopes the effects of the bursting of the bomb. When the bomb burst in the desert a huge pillar of light and smoke was seen shooting up several thousand feet above. The light emitted was several times more intense than the flash of a lightning. The pillar was overtopped with rays of flight spreading out like a mushroom. A tremendous blast was produced which swept over the desert like a serious hurricane. Several hours afterwards the spot where the bomb had burst was investigated. It was found that there was a deep depression in the ground nearly half a mile in circumference and the sands had been melted by the heat and turned into glass. The experiment convinced the scientists of the unprecedented destructive power of the Atom Bomb and on the ^ report of the scientists the American President decided to use it in the warfare against Japan. How Used So an Atom Bomb was flown from America to Japan and was dropped on a city called Hiroshima where a Japanese Army was stationed on 16th August 1945. It was a great and populous city but not only did the bomb wipe out the whole army but also levelled all the houses to the ground and nothing was left but heaps of debris. It is said that certain dSstructive rays of light were emitted from the bursting of the bomb causing severe bur.ns to people who lived many miles away. The bombing of Hiroshima was followed three days afterwards by the bombing of Nagasaki, an industrial town of great importance in Japan, which also was utterly devastated with all its numerous factories and workshops. The Atom Bomb had in fact placed in the hands of the Allies in the last war a weapon of such destructive power that it was impossible to withstand or counteract it. It was capable of devastating and laying in ruins a whole country and killing all its population. The Atom Bomb is by far the grealesl weapon of aggression and destruction. It wipes off animate and inanimate objects in a sweep and changes the very face of earth. It has reduced great political powers to figureheads and produced fear in all minds. It has given birth to several political, social, moral and military problems. It has A550 551 had its impact on time and the very age has come to be called an atomic age. But that is not the end of it. We now hear of the invention of Hydrogen Bomb which is 1,000 time more destructive. This is far from being the right use of science. But how different would this world be and what unknown benefits will it promise to us if scientists had a conscience and if science could be harnessed in the service of humanity. Controversy

Since the use of the Atom Bomb by the Americans in Japan which brought the world war to an abrupt termination, a great controversy had been raging over it. One school of thought has denounced the use of the Atom Bomb in warfare as barbarous and unworthy of civilised people as it gives to its victims no possible chance of defence. The destruction it causes is widespread indiscriminate and involves the killing of combatants and civilians alike. It spares noneneither old, nor woman, nor children. It is held that like poison gas and other cruel modes of destruction, it should be banned out of the methods of civilised warfare. There is no doubt that there is a good deal of force in this view about the use of the Atom Bomb but it is possible that further scientific research may in future lead to the invention of some countervailing weapon like the anti-aircraft guns which are directed against bombing aeroplanes. But till such an invention comes to pass the Atom Bomb surely leaves no chance of protection ta its victims. It has also been debated whether it was proper for the Americans to have used it against the Japanese but there is no doubt that the war would have been prolonged and perhaps more human beings would have been killed than had been by the Atom Bombs if this sudden check had not been applied in time. Some scientists also have protested against the use of the Atom Bomb as being an infernal abuse of science and a hideous depraving of its true aims and objects which lie not in destroying men but in improving the conditions of living on earth for mankind. Sharing of Secret ,x The secret of manufacturing the Atom Bomb is now in the possession of the Government of the United Stales, Russia and China which makes them all powerful in the event of any future war. The t / other allied powers are therefore negotiating with them for the | purpose of sharing the secret, ll is clear, however, that unless the secret of the manufacture of (he Aloni Bomb is shared by all the Allies, the United States of America and Russia will always have an advantage over others. In the manufacture of the Atom Bomb a' mineral called Uranium is necessary. It is llie atom of Uranium that splits up in the bursting of an Atom Bomb. Several countries contain * Uranium deposits. The problem of controlling mining of Uranium has also corrie to the fore. It has been suggested that Uranium should not be allowed to be mined by private persons nor by the Governments of the countries in which the mineral is found without consent of other Allied countries. Uranium control is likely to become an issue of worldwide importance among statesmen and-administrators. It is obvious that given a supply of Uranium and sufficient scientific talents to exploit it, a nation can easily arm itself with tremendous destructive powers. If many nations come to possess this destructive power, which the discovery of atomic energy has placed within man's reach, the outbreak of a future war would mean race suicide for mankind. Peace Time

But apart from international questions which arc at present involved in the use of the Atom Bomb (here is no doubt that the scientific principle ol it which has been used up till now for destructive purposes only can contribute to the phenomenal advance in human life. Atomic energy, harnessed by scientists can not only destroy but also supply to man the means of revolutionising all existing industries. The pgwer for the running of industries is now taken either from electricity or from steam. In future atomic energy may be able to supply that power. So what has been irresistibly destructive in warfare will become incalculably helpful in building up industrial civilisation. But scientific researches have not advanced to the point where atomic energy, instead of being let loose for destructive purposes, can be controlled and harnessed to peaceful uses as a source of power. It has been calculated that a minute quantity of Uranium can supply such atomic energy as may keep all the electric and industrial installations of two great cities like New York and Chicago for a period of 5 years without break. It is well-known that the Sun which is the source of life ill552 is only a vast fund of atomic energy. The atom-splitting which the scientists have succeeded in achieving in their laboratories constantly goes on by a natural process on the sm lace of the Sun. Thus the central secret of the life giving power of the Sun has now come into the grasp of man. But how many yeats will elapse before this secret can be utilised and man can become as powerful in developing and nurturing life as the Sun itself is at present unknown. Scientists, however, are not without hope that the time is bound to come in the course of perhaps half a century more.