The Making of the Atomic Bomb: 25th Anniversary Edition

by Richard Rhodes

with a half-life of only 3.82 days it was perishable in any case and his glowing gram of radium continually exhaled a fresh draft.

“the astonishing American creation in three years, at a cost of two billion dollars, of a formidable array of factories and laboratories—as large as the entire automobile industry of the United States at that date.”2249

The dragon is of historical importance. It was the first controlled nuclear reaction which was supercritical with prompt neutrons alone.2266

The core of the first atomic bomb would go to its glory dressed in improvised offerings of nickel and gold.