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RIP Edward Teller
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September 14th 03, 03:19 AM
ArtKramr
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Subject: RIP Edward Teller
From: Chad Irby
Date: 9/13/03 6:54 PM Pacific Daylight Time
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(Autocollimator) wrote:
From: Chad Irby
The big problem for the German program was Heisenberg. Before the war,
he'd calculated some fission cross-sections incorractly, and apparently
never recalculated them. He thought the mass for a chain reaction was
something on the order of forty *tons*. If he'd had a somewhat smaller
ego, he might have done some recalculation of his assumptions and gotten
it right.
Even after the war, he insisted that the Americans hadn't actually built
a uranium fission bomb until he was shown the correct cross-section
calculations.
There is a rather extensive body of thought that maintains that
Heisenburg was deliberately obstructionist.
I've also heard that some of the lesser lights among his staff fed him
"confirmed" numbers that went in the wrong direction.
Heisenberg was a known patriot, though he wasn't a Nazi by any stretch.
Once he realized what the end product could do, he might have done the
sabotage himself, though (it was a very small calculation error,
overall).
..
Large enough not to get the job done.
Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer
ArtKramr