A super rare, historic 1945 report on the development of the atomic bomb, signed by 24 Manhattan Project contributors like Oppenheimer, Fermi, Lawrence, Chadwick, Urey, and Rabi has hit the auction block.
RR Auction got their hands on that historic report titled “Atomic Bombs: A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes Under the Auspices of the United States Government, 1940-1945” by Henry D. Smyth.
The historical report was privately printed in August 1945 and written before the testing of the first bomb at the Los Alamos “Trinity” test site.
The report is signed in ink on the cover by 24 prominent scientists and administrators engaged in developing and deploying the most dangerous weapon ever created.
The names include J. Robert Oppenheimer and Nobel Prize winners Enrico Fermi, Ernest Lawrence, James Chadwick, Harold Urey, and Isidor I. Rabi.
The author’s signature is also displayed on the title page in fountain pen … ’cause he played a crucial role in the early development of nuclear energy, including participation in the Manhattan Project, membership in the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), and served as U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Gen. Leslie Groves‘ War Department secretary in Washington, Nellie V. Sanderson, obtained all the signatures.
This report was first released days after the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and is likely the very first publicly available report on the creation of the bomb.
The creation of the nuclear bomb in the United States culminated in a successful test of the doomsday weapon in July 1945.
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Weeks later, America dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, putting an end to World War II. The villages were obliterated, with roughly 200,000 people killed.
The events were depicted in Christopher Nolan‘s 2023 movie “Oppenheimer,” which is winning huge acclaim in the award season circuit, and is also up for Best Film at this year’s Oscars.