Little Boy

"Little Boy" was the codename for the type of atomic

Little Boy
bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6
August 1945 during World War II. It was the first nuclear
weapon used in warfare. The bomb was dropped by the
Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay piloted by Colonel
Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite
Group of the United States Army Air Forces and Captain
Robert A. Lewis. It exploded with an energy of
approximately 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ) and caused
widespread death and destruction throughout the city.
The Hiroshima bombing was the second man-made
nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity test.
A post-war Little Boy model
Little Boy was developed by Lieutenant Commander
Francis Birch's group at the Manhattan Project's Los Type Nuclear weapon
Alamos Laboratory during World War II, a reworking of Place of origin United States
their unsuccessful Thin Man nuclear bomb. Like Thin
Production history
Man, it was a gun-type fission weapon, but it derived its
explosive power from the nuclear fission of uranium-235, Designer Los Alamos Laboratory
whereas Thin Man was based on fission of plutonium-239. Produced 1945
Fission was accomplished by shooting a hollow cylinder of
enriched uranium (the "bullet") onto a solid cylinder of No. built 26
the same material (the "target") by means of a charge of Specifications
nitrocellulose propellant powder. It contained 64 kg Mass 9,700 pounds (4,400 kg)
(141 lb) of enriched uranium, although less than a
kilogram underwent nuclear fission. Its components were Length 10 feet (3.0 m)
fabricated at three different plants so that no one would Diameter 28 inches (71 cm)
have a copy of the complete design.

After the war ended, it was not expected that the Filling Uranium-235
inefficient Little Boy design would ever again be required, Filling weight 64 kg
and many plans and diagrams were destroyed. However,
Blast yield 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ)
by mid-1946, the Hanford Site reactors began suffering
badly from the Wigner effect, the dislocation of atoms in a
solid caused by neutron radiation, and plutonium became scarce, so six Little Boy assemblies were
produced at Sandia Base. The Navy Bureau of Ordnance built another 25 Little Boy assemblies in 1947
for use by the Lockheed P2V Neptune nuclear strike aircraft which could be launched from the Midway-
class aircraft carriers. All the Little Boy units were withdrawn from service by the end of January 1951.

Contents
Naming
Development
Design
Assembly details
Counter-intuitive design
Fuze system
Rehearsals
Bombing of Hiroshima
Project Ichiban
Physical effects
Blast
Fire
Radiation
Conventional weapon equivalent
Post-war
Notes
References
External links

Naming
Physicist Robert Serber named the first two atomic bomb designs during World War II based on their
shapes: Thin Man and Fat Man. The "Thin Man" was a long, thin device and its name came from the
Dashiell Hammett detective novel and series of movies about The Thin Man. The "Fat Man" was round
and fat so it was named after Kasper Gutman, a rotund character in Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese
Falcon, played by Sydney Greenstreet in the 1941 film version. Little Boy was named by others as an
allusion to Thin Man, since it was based on its design.[1]

Development
Because uranium-235 was known to be fissionable, it was the first material pursued in the approach to
bomb development. As the first design developed (as well as the first deployed for combat), it is
sometimes known as the Mark I.[2] The vast majority of the work came in the form of the isotope
enrichment of the uranium necessary for the weapon, since uranium-235 makes up only 1 part in 140 of
natural uranium.[3] Enrichment was performed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where the electromagnetic
separation plant, known as Y-12, became fully operational in March 1944.[4] The first shipments of
highly enriched uranium were sent to the Los Alamos Laboratory in June 1944.[5]

Most of the uranium necessary for the production of the bomb came from the Shinkolobwe mine and
was made available thanks to the foresight of the CEO of the High Katanga Mining Union, Edgar
Sengier, who had 1,200 short tons (1,100 t) of uranium ore transported to a New York warehouse in
1940.[6] At least part of the 1,200 short tons (1,100 t) in addition to the uranium ore and uranium oxide
captured by the Alsos Mission in 1944 and 1945 went to Oak Ridge for enrichment,[7] as did 1,232
pounds (559 kg) of uranium oxide captured on the Japan-bound German submarine U-234 after
Germany's surrender in May 1945.[8]
Little Boy was a simplification of Thin Man, the previous gun-type
fission weapon design. Thin Man, 17 feet (5.2 m) long, was designed
to use plutonium, so it was also more than capable of using enriched
uranium. The Thin Man design was abandoned after experiments by
Emilio G. Segrè and his P-5 Group at Los Alamos on the newly
reactor-produced plutonium from Oak Ridge and the Hanford site
showed that it contained impurities in the form of the isotope
plutonium-240. This has a far higher spontaneous fission rate and
radioactivity than the cyclotron-produced plutonium on which the
original measurements had been made, and its inclusion in reactor-
As part of Project Alberta,
bred plutonium (needed for bomb-making due to the quantities
Commander A. Francis Birch (left)
required) appeared unavoidable. This meant that the background
assembles the bomb while physicist
fission rate of the plutonium was so high that it would be highly
Norman Ramsey watches. This is
likely the plutonium would predetonate and blow itself apart in the one of the rare photos where the
initial forming of a critical mass.[9] inside of the bomb can be seen.

In July 1944, almost all research at Los Alamos was redirected to the
implosion-type plutonium weapon. Overall responsibility for the
uranium gun-type weapon was assigned to Captain William S. Parsons's Ordnance (O) Division. All the
design, development, and technical work at Los Alamos was consolidated under Lieutenant Commander
Francis Birch's group.[10] In contrast to the plutonium implosion-type nuclear weapon and the
plutonium gun-type fission weapon, the uranium gun-type weapon was straightforward if not trivial to
design. The concept was pursued so that in case of a failure to develop a plutonium bomb, it would still
be possible to use the gun principle. The gun-type design henceforth had to work with enriched uranium
only, and this allowed the Thin Man design to be greatly simplified. A high-velocity gun was no longer
required, and a simpler weapon could be substituted. The simplified weapon was short enough to fit into
a B-29 bomb bay.[11]

The design specifications were completed in February 1945, and contracts were let to build the
components. Three different plants were used so that no one would have a copy of the complete design.
The gun and breech were made by the Naval Gun Factory in Washington, D.C.; the target case and some
other components by the Naval Ordnance Plant in Center Line, Michigan; and the tail fairing and
mounting brackets by the Expert Tool and Die Company in Detroit, Michigan.[12] The bomb, except for
the uranium payload, was ready at the beginning of May 1945.[13] Manhattan District Engineer Kenneth
Nichols expected on 1 May 1945 to have uranium-235 "for one weapon before August 1 and a second one
sometime in December", assuming the second weapon would be a gun type; designing an implosion
bomb for uranium-235 was considered, and this would increase the production rate.[14] The uranium-
235 projectile was completed on 15 June, and the target on 24 July.[15] The target and bomb pre-
assemblies (partly assembled bombs without the fissile components) left Hunters Point Naval Shipyard,
California, on 16 July aboard the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis, arriving on 26 July.[16] The target
inserts followed by air on 30 July.[15]

Although all of its components had been tested,[15] no full test of a gun-type nuclear weapon occurred
before the Little Boy was dropped over Hiroshima. The only test explosion of a nuclear weapon concept
had been of an implosion-type device employing plutonium as its fissile material, and took place on 16
July 1945 at the Trinity nuclear test. There were several reasons for not testing a Little Boy type of
device. Primarily, there was little uranium-235 as compared with the relatively large amount of
plutonium which, it was expected, could be produced by the Hanford Site reactors.[17] Additionally, the
weapon design was simple enough that it was only deemed necessary to do laboratory tests with the gun-
type assembly. Unlike the implosion design, which required sophisticated coordination of shaped
explosive charges, the gun-type design was considered almost certain to work.[18]
Though Little Boy incorporated various safety mechanisms, an accidental detonation was nonetheless
possible. For example, should the bomber carrying the device crash then the hollow "bullet" could be
driven into the "target" cylinder, detonating the bomb or at least releasing massive amounts of radiation;
tests showed that this would require a highly unlikely impact of 500 times the force of gravity.[19]
Another concern was that a crash and fire could trigger the explosives.[20] If immersed in water, the
uranium components were subject to a neutron moderator effect, which would not cause an explosion
but would release radioactive contamination. For this reason, pilots were advised to crash on land rather
than at sea.[19]

Design
The Little Boy was 120 inches (300 cm) in length, 28 inches (71 cm)
in diameter and weighed approximately 9,700 pounds
(4,400 kg).[21] The design used the gun method to explosively force a
hollow sub-critical mass of enriched uranium and a solid target
cylinder together into a super-critical mass, initiating a nuclear
chain reaction.[22] This was accomplished by shooting one piece of
the uranium onto the other by means of four cylindrical silk bags of
cordite powder. This was a widely used smokeless propellant
consisting of a mixture of 65 percent nitrocellulose, 30 percent The "gun" assembly method. When
the hollow uranium projectile was
nitroglycerine, 3 percent petroleum jelly, and 3 percent carbamite
driven onto the target cylinder, a
that was extruded into tubular granules. This gave it a high surface
nuclear explosion resulted.
area and a rapid burning area, and could attain pressures of up to
40,000 pounds per square inch (280,000 kPa). Cordite for the
wartime Little Boy was sourced from Canada; propellant for post-
war Little Boys was obtained from the Picatinny Arsenal.[23] The bomb contained 64 kg (141 lb) of
enriched uranium. Most was enriched to 89% but some was only 50% uranium-235, for an average
enrichment of 80%.[22] Less than a kilogram of uranium underwent nuclear fission, and of this mass
only 0.6 g (0.021 oz) was transformed into several forms of energy, mostly kinetic energy, but also heat
and radiation.[24]

Assembly details

Inside the weapon, the uranium-235 material was divided into two parts, following the gun principle: the
"projectile" and the "target". The projectile was a hollow cylinder with 60% of the total mass (38.5 kg
(85 lb)). It consisted of a stack of nine uranium rings, each 6.25-inch (159 mm) in diameter with a 4-inch
(100 mm) bore in the center, and a total length of 7 inches (180 mm), pressed together into the front end
of a thin-walled projectile 16.25 inches (413 mm) long. Filling in the remainder of the space behind these
rings in the projectile was a tungsten carbide disc with a steel back. At ignition, the projectile slug was
pushed 42 inches (1,100 mm) along the 72-inch (1,800 mm) long, 6.5-inch (170 mm) smooth-bore gun
barrel. The slug "insert" was a 4 inches (100 mm) cylinder, 7 inches (180 mm) in length with a 1 inch
(25 mm) axial hole. The slug comprised 40% of the total fissile mass (25.6 kg or 56 lb). The insert was a
stack of six washer-like uranium discs somewhat thicker than the projectile rings that were slid over a 1
inch (25 mm) rod. This rod then extended forward through the tungsten carbide tamper plug, impact-
absorbing anvil, and nose plug backstop, eventually protruding out of the front of the bomb casing. This
entire target assembly was secured at both ends with locknuts.[25][26]
When the hollow-front projectile reached the target and slid over the target insert, the assembled super-
critical mass of uranium would be completely surrounded by a tamper and neutron reflector of tungsten
carbide and steel, both materials having a combined mass of 2,300 kg (5,100 lb).[27] Neutron initiators
at the base of the projectile were activated by the impact.[28]

Counter-intuitive design

For the first fifty years after 1945, every published description and drawing of the Little Boy mechanism
assumed that a small, solid projectile was fired into the center of a larger, stationary target.[29] However,
critical mass considerations dictated that in Little Boy the larger, hollow piece would be the projectile.
The assembled fissile core had more than two critical masses of uranium-235. This required one of the
two pieces to have more than one critical mass, with the larger piece avoiding criticality prior to
assembly by means of shape and minimal contact with the neutron-reflecting tungsten carbide tamper.
A hole in the center of the larger piece dispersed the mass and increased the surface area, allowing more
fission neutrons to escape, thus preventing a premature chain reaction.[30] But, for this larger, hollow
piece to have minimal contact with the tamper, it must be the projectile, since only the projectile's back
end was in contact with the tamper prior to detonation. The rest of the tungsten carbide surrounded the
sub-critical mass target cylinder (called the "insert" by the designers) with air space between it and the
insert. This arrangement packs the maximum amount of fissile material into a gun-assembly design.[30]

Fuze system

The fuzing system was designed to trigger at the most destructive

altitude, which calculations suggested was 580 meters (1,900 ft). It
employed a three-stage interlock system:[31]

A timer ensured that the bomb would not explode until at least
fifteen seconds after release, one-quarter of the predicted fall
time, to ensure safety of the aircraft. The timer was activated
when the electrical pull-out plugs connecting it to the airplane
pulled loose as the bomb fell, switching it to its internal 24–volt
battery and starting the timer. At the end of the 15 seconds, the Arming plugs for a Little Boy type
bomb would be 3,600 feet (1,100 m) from the aircraft, and the atomic bomb on display at the
radar altimeters were powered up and responsibility was passed National Air and Space Museum's
to the barometric stage. [31] Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center.
The purpose of the barometric stage was to delay activating the
radar altimeter firing command circuit until near detonation
altitude. A thin metallic membrane enclosing a vacuum chamber (a similar design is still used today
in old-fashioned wall barometers) gradually deformed as ambient air pressure increased during
descent. The barometric fuze was not considered accurate enough to detonate the bomb at the
precise ignition height, because air pressure varies with local conditions. When the bomb reached
the design height for this stage (reportedly 2,000 meters, 6,600 ft), the membrane closed a circuit,
activating the radar altimeters. The barometric stage was added because of a worry that external
radar signals might detonate the bomb too early.[31]
Two or more redundant radar altimeters were used to reliably detect final altitude. When the
altimeters sensed the correct height, the firing switch closed, igniting the three BuOrd Mk15, Mod 1
Navy gun primers in the breech plug, which set off the charge consisting of four silk powder bags
each containing 2 pounds (0.9 kg) of WM slotted-tube cordite. This launched the uranium projectile
towards the opposite end of the gun barrel at an eventual muzzle velocity of 300 meters per second
(980 ft/s). Approximately 10 milliseconds later the chain reaction occurred, lasting less than 1
microsecond. The radar altimeters used were modified U.S. Army Air Corps APS-13 tail warning
radars, nicknamed "Archie", normally used to warn a fighter pilot of another plane approaching from
behind.[31]

Rehearsals
The Little Boy pre-assemblies were designated L-1, L-2, L-3, L-4, L-5, L-6, L-7, and L-11. L-1, L-2, L-5,
and L-6 were expended in test drops. The first drop test was conducted with L-1 on 23 July 1945. It was
dropped over the sea near Tinian in order to test the radar altimeter by the B-29 later known as Big
Stink, piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, the commander of the 509th Composite Group. Two more
drop tests over the sea were made on 24 and 25 July, using the L-2 and L-5 units in order to test all
components. Tibbets was the pilot for both missions, but this time the bomber used was the one
subsequently known as Jabit. L-6 was used as a dress rehearsal on 29 July. The B-29 Next Objective,
piloted by Major Charles W. Sweeney, flew to Iwo Jima, where
emergency procedures for loading the bomb onto a standby aircraft
were practiced. This rehearsal was repeated on 31 July, but this time
L-6 was reloaded onto a different B-29, Enola Gay, piloted by
Tibbets, and the bomb was test dropped near Tinian. L-11 was the
assembly used for the Hiroshima bomb.[32][33]

Bombing of Hiroshima
Parsons, the Enola Gay's weaponeer, was concerned about the
possibility of an accidental detonation if the plane crashed on
takeoff, so he decided not to load the four cordite powder bags into
the gun breech until the aircraft was in flight. After takeoff, Parsons
and his assistant, Second Lieutenant Morris R. Jeppson, made their Little Boy in the bomb pit on Tinian
way into the bomb bay along the narrow catwalk on the port side. island, before being loaded into
Jeppson held a flashlight while Parsons disconnected the primer Enola Gay's bomb bay. A section of
wires, removed the breech plug, inserted the powder bags, replaced the bomb bay door is visible on the
the breech plug, and reconnected the wires. Before climbing to top right.
altitude on approach to the target, Jeppson switched the three safety
plugs between the electrical connectors of the internal battery and
the firing mechanism from green to red. The bomb was then fully
armed. Jeppson monitored the bomb's circuits.[34]

The bomb was dropped at

approximately 08:15 (JST) 6
August 1945. After falling for Enola Gay after Hiroshima mission,
44.4 seconds, the time and entering hardstand. It is in its 6th
barometric triggers started the Bombardment Group livery, with
firing mechanism. The victor number 82 visible on fuselage
detonation happened at an just forward of the tail fin.
altitude of 1,968 ± 50 feet
(600 ± 15 m). It was less
powerful than the Fat Man, which was dropped on Nagasaki, but the
damage and the number of victims at Hiroshima were much higher,
as Hiroshima was on flat terrain, while the hypocenter of Nagasaki
lay in a small valley. According to figures published in 1945, 66,000
people were killed as a direct result of the Hiroshima blast, and
The mushroom cloud over 69,000 were injured to varying degrees.[35] Of those deaths, 20,000
Hiroshima after the dropping of Little were members of the Imperial Japanese Army.[36]
Boy
The exact measurement of the yield was problematic since the
weapon had never been tested. President Harry S. Truman officially
announced that the yield was 20 kilotons of TNT (84 TJ). This was based on Parsons's visual assessment
that the blast was greater than what he had seen at the Trinity nuclear test. Since that had been
estimated at 18 kilotons of TNT (75 TJ), speech writers rounded up to 20 kilotons. Further discussion
was then suppressed, for fear of lessening the impact of the bomb on the Japanese. Data had been
collected by Luis Alvarez, Harold Agnew, and Lawrence H. Johnston on the instrument plane, The Great
Artiste, but this was not used to calculate the yield at the time.[37]
After hostilities ended, a survey team from the Manhattan Project that included William Penney, Robert
Serber, and George T. Reynolds was sent to Hiroshima to evaluate the effects of the blast. From
evaluating the effects on objects and structures, Penney concluded that the yield was 12 ± 1 kilotons.[38]
Later calculations based on charring pointed to a yield of 13 to 14 kilotons.[39] In 1953, Frederick Reines
calculated the yield as 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ).[37] This figure became the official yield.[40]

Project Ichiban

In 1962, scientists at Los Alamos created a mockup of Little Boy known as "Project Ichiban" in order to
answer some of the unanswered questions, but it failed to clear up all the issues. In 1982, Los Alamos
created a replica Little Boy from the original drawings and specifications. This was then tested with
enriched uranium but in a safe configuration that would not cause a nuclear explosion. A hydraulic lift
was used to move the projectile, and experiments were run to assess neutron emission.[41] Based on this
and the data from The Great Artiste, the yield was estimated at 16.6 ± 0.3 kilotons.[42] After considering
many estimation methods, a 1985 report concluded that the yield was 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ) ±
20%.[40]

Physical effects
After being selected in April 1945, Hiroshima was spared
conventional bombing to serve as a pristine target, where the effects
of a nuclear bomb on an undamaged city could be observed.[43]
While damage could be studied later, the energy yield of the
untested Little Boy design could be determined only at the moment
of detonation, using instruments dropped by parachute from a plane
flying in formation with the one that dropped the bomb. Radio-
transmitted data from these instruments indicated a yield of about
15 kilotons.[40]
The General Effects of the Atomic
Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Comparing this yield to the observed damage produced a rule of
a US Air Force film. thumb called the 5 pounds per square inch (34 kPa) lethal area rule.
Approximately all the people inside the area where the shock wave
carried such an overpressure or greater would be killed.[44] At
Hiroshima, that area was 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) in diameter.[45]

The damage came from three main effects: blast, fire, and radiation.[46]

Blast

The blast from a nuclear bomb is the result of X-ray-heated air (the fireball) sending a shock wave or
pressure wave in all directions, initially at a velocity greater than the speed of sound,[47] analogous to
thunder generated by lightning. Knowledge about urban blast destruction is based largely on studies of
Little Boy at Hiroshima. Nagasaki buildings suffered similar damage at similar distances, but the
Nagasaki bomb detonated 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) from the city center over hilly terrain that was
partially bare of buildings.[48]

In Hiroshima almost everything within 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mi) of the point directly under the explosion
was completely destroyed, except for about 50 heavily reinforced, earthquake-resistant concrete
buildings, only the shells of which remained standing. Most were completely gutted, with their windows,
doors, sashes, and frames ripped out.[49] The perimeter of severe
blast damage approximately followed the 5 psi (34 kPa) contour at
1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi).

Later test explosions of nuclear weapons with houses and other test
structures nearby confirmed the 5 psi overpressure threshold.
Ordinary urban buildings experiencing it were crushed, toppled, or
gutted by the force of air pressure. The picture at right shows the
effects of a nuclear-bomb-generated 5 psi pressure wave on a test
structure in Nevada in 1953.[50]
Frame house in 1953 nuclear test, 5
psi overpressure
A major effect of this kind of structural damage was that it created
fuel for fires that were started simultaneously throughout the severe
destruction region.

Fire

The first effect of the explosion was blinding light, accompanied by radiant heat from the fireball. The
Hiroshima fireball was 370 metres (1,200 ft) in diameter, with a surface temperature of 6,000 °C
(10,830 °F).[51] Near ground zero, everything flammable burst into flame. One famous, anonymous
Hiroshima victim, sitting on stone steps 260 metres (850 ft) from the hypocenter, left only a shadow,
having absorbed the fireball heat that permanently bleached the surrounding stone.[52] Simultaneous
fires were started throughout the blast-damaged area by fireball heat and by overturned stoves and
furnaces, electrical shorts, etc. Twenty minutes after the detonation, these fires had merged into a
firestorm, pulling in surface air from all directions to feed an inferno which consumed everything
flammable.[53]

The Hiroshima firestorm was roughly 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) in

diameter, corresponding closely to the severe blast damage zone.
(See the USSBS[54] map, right.) Blast-damaged buildings provided
fuel for the fire. Structural lumber and furniture were splintered and
scattered about. Debris-choked roads obstructed fire fighters.
Broken gas pipes fueled the fire, and broken water pipes rendered
hydrants useless.[53] At Nagasaki, the fires failed to merge into a
single firestorm, and the fire-damaged area was only one fourth as
great as at Hiroshima, due in part to a southwest wind that pushed
the fires away from the city.[55]

As the map shows, the Hiroshima firestorm jumped natural

firebreaks (river channels), as well as prepared firebreaks. The Hiroshima blast and fire damage,
spread of fire stopped only when it reached the edge of the blast- U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey map
damaged area, encountering less available fuel.[56]

Accurate casualty figures are impossible to determine, because many victims were cremated by the
firestorm, along with all record of their existence. The Manhattan Project report on Hiroshima estimated
that 60% of immediate deaths were caused by fire, but with the caveat that "many persons near the
center of explosion suffered fatal injuries from more than one of the bomb effects."[57] In particular,
many fire victims also received lethal doses of nuclear radiation.

Radiation
Local fallout is dust and ash from a bomb crater, contaminated with radioactive fission products. It falls
to earth downwind of the crater and can produce, with radiation alone, a lethal area much larger than
that from blast and fire. With an air burst, the fission products rise into the stratosphere, where they
dissipate and become part of the global environment. Because Little Boy was an air burst 580 metres
(1,900 ft) above the ground, there was no bomb crater and no local radioactive fallout.[58]

However, a burst of intense neutron and gamma radiation came directly from the fireball. Its lethal
radius was approximately 1.3 kilometres (0.8 mi),[45] covering about half of the firestorm area. An
estimated 30% of immediate fatalities were people who received lethal doses of this direct radiation, but
died in the firestorm before their radiation injuries would have become apparent. Over 6,000 people
survived the blast and fire, but died of radiation injuries.[57] Among injured survivors, 30% had radiation
injuries[59] from which they recovered, but with a lifelong increase in cancer risk.[60][61] To date, no
radiation-related evidence of heritable diseases has been observed among the survivors'
children.[62][63][64]

Conventional weapon equivalent

Although Little Boy exploded with the energy equivalent of 16,000 tons of TNT, the Strategic Bombing
Survey estimated that the same blast and fire effect could have been caused by 2,100 tons of
conventional bombs: "220 B-29s carrying 1,200 tons of incendiary bombs, 400 tons of high-explosive
bombs, and 500 tons of anti-personnel fragmentation bombs."[65] Since the target was spread across a
two-dimensional plane, the vertical component of a single spherical nuclear explosion was largely
wasted. A cluster bomb pattern of smaller explosions would have been a more energy-efficient match to
the target.[65]

Post-war
When the war ended, it was not expected that the inefficient Little
Boy design would ever again be required, and many plans and
diagrams were destroyed. However, by mid-1946 the Hanford Site
reactors were suffering badly from the Wigner effect. Faced with the
prospect of no more plutonium for new cores and no more polonium
for the initiators for the cores that had already been produced, the
Director of the Manhattan Project, Major General Leslie R. Groves,
ordered that some Little Boys be prepared as an interim measure
until a cure could be found. No Little Boy assemblies were available,
and no comprehensive set of diagrams of the Little Boy could be One of five casings built for the Little
found, although there were drawings of the various components, and Boy bomb used on Hiroshima on
stocks of spare parts.[66][67] display at the Imperial War Museum
in London during 2015
At Sandia Base, three Army officers, Captains Albert Bethel, Richard
Meyer, and Bobbie Griffin attempted to re-create the Little Boy.
They were supervised by Harlow W. Russ, an expert on Little Boy who served with Project Alberta on
Tinian, and was now leader of the Z-11 Group of the Los Alamos Laboratory's Z Division at Sandia.
Gradually, they managed to locate the correct drawings and parts, and figured out how they went
together. Eventually, they built six Little Boy assemblies. Although the casings, barrels, and components
were tested, no enriched uranium was supplied for the bombs. By early 1947, the problem caused by the
Wigner effect was on its way to solution, and the three officers were reassigned.[66][67]
The Navy Bureau of Ordnance built 25 Little Boy assemblies in 1947 for use by the nuclear-capable
Lockheed P2V Neptune aircraft carrier aircraft (which could be launched from but not land on the
Midway-class aircraft carriers). Components were produced by the Naval Ordnance Plants in Pocatello,
Idaho, and Louisville, Kentucky. Enough fissionable material was available by 1948 to build ten
projectiles and targets, although there were only enough initiators for six.[68] All the Little Boy units
were withdrawn from service by the end of January 1951.[69][70]

The Smithsonian Institution displayed a Little Boy (complete, except for enriched uranium), until 1986.
The Department of Energy took the weapon from the museum to remove its inner components, so the
bombs could not be stolen and detonated with fissile material. The government returned the emptied
casing to the Smithsonian in 1993. Three other disarmed bombs are on display in the United States;
another is at the Imperial War Museum in London.[29]

Notes
1. Serber & Crease 1998, p. 104.
2. Hansen 1995, p. V-105.
3. Jones 1985, p. 9.
4. Jones 1985, p. 138.
5. Jones 1985, p. 143.
6. Jones 1985, pp. 64–65.
7. Rhodes 1995, pp. 160–161.
8. "The Sensational Surrender of Four Nazi U-boats at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard" (http://www.ne
wenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-sensational-surrender-of-four-nazi-u-boats-at-the-portsmouth-nav
al-shipyard/). New England Historical Society. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
9. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 228.
10. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 245–249.
11. Rhodes 1986, p. 541.
12. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 257.
13. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 262.
14. Nichols 1987, pp. 175–176.
15. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 265.
16. Coster-Mullen 2012, p. 30.
17. Hansen 1995, pp. 111–112.
18. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 293.
19. Hansen 1995, p. 113.
20. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 333.
21. Gosling 1999, p. 51.
22. Coster-Mullen 2012, p. 18.
23. Coster-Mullen 2012, p. 27.
24. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, p. 12.
25. Sublette, Carey. "Nuclear Weapons Frequently Asked Questions, Section 8.0: The First Nuclear
Weapons" (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html). Retrieved 29 August 2013.
26. Coster-Mullen 2012, pp. 18–19, 27.
27. Bernstein 2007, p. 133.
28. Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 263–265.
29. Samuels 2008.
30. Coster-Mullen 2012, pp. 23–24.
31. Hansen 1995a, pp. 2–5.
32. Campbell 2005, pp. 46, 80.
33. Coster-Mullen 2012, pp. 100–101.
34. Coster-Mullen 2012, pp. 34–35.
35. The Manhattan Engineer District (29 June 1946). "The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki" (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/685/pg685.html). Project Gutenberg (Public
Domain). p. 3.
36. Alan Axelrod (6 May 2008). The Real History of World War II: A New Look at the Past (https://archiv
e.org/details/realhistoryofwor00axel). Sterling. p. 350 (https://archive.org/details/realhistoryofwor00ax
el/page/350).
37. Hoddeson et al. 1993, p. 393.
38. Malik 1985, pp. 18–20.
39. Malik 1985, p. 21.
40. Malik 1985, p. 1.
41. Coster-Mullen 2012, pp. 86–87.
42. Malik 1985, p. 16.
43. Groves 1962, p. 267, "To enable us to assess accurately the effects of the [nuclear] bomb, the
targets should not have been previously damaged by air raids." Four cities were chosen, including
Hiroshima and Kyoto. War Secretary Stimson vetoed Kyoto, and Nagasaki was substituted. p. 275,
"When our target cities were first selected, an order was sent to the Army Air Force in Guam not to
bomb them without special authority from the War Department.".
44. Glasstone 1962, p. 629.
45. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, p. Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer.
46. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, p. 1.
47. Diacon 1984, p. 18.
48. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, pp. 300, 301.
49. The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1946, p. 14.
50. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, p. 179.
51. Nuclear Weapon Thermal Effects 1998.
52. Human Shadow Etched in Stone.
53. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, pp. 300–304.
54. D'Olier 1946, pp. 22–25.
55. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, p. 304.
56. The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1946, pp. 21–23.
57. The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 1946, p. 21.
58. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, p. 409 "An air burst, by definition, is one taking place at such a height
above the earth that no appreciable quantities of surface material are taken up into the fireball. ... the
deposition of early fallout from an air burst will generally not be significant. An air burst, however,
may produce some induced radioactive contamination in the general vicinity of ground zero as a
result of neutron capture by elements in the soil." p. 36, "at Hiroshima ... injuries due to fallout were
completely absent.".
59. Glasstone & Dolan 1977, pp. 545, 546.
60. Richardson RR 2009.
61. "The ongoing research into the effects of radiation" (http://www.radionetherlandsarchives.org/50th-an
niversary-of-the-a-bomb-attacks-the-ongoing-research-into-the-effects-of-radiation/). Radio
Netherlands Archives. 31 July 2005. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
62. Genetic Effects.
63. Izumi BJC 2003.
64. Izumi IJC 2003.
65. D'Olier 1946, p. 24.
66. Coster-Mullen 2012, p. 85.
67. Abrahamson & Carew 2002, pp. 41–42.
68. Hansen 1995, pp. 116–118.
69. Hansen 1995, p. 3.
70. "Chart of Strategic Nuclear Bombs" (http://www.strategic-air-command.com/weapons/nuclear_bomb
_chart.htm). strategic-air-command.com.

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External links
Little Boy description (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq8.html#nfaq8.1.3) at Carey
Sublette's NuclearWeaponArchive.org
Nuclear Files.org (http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/history/pre-cold-wa
r/manhattan-project/littleboy.htm) Definition and explanation of 'Little Boy'
The Nuclear Weapon Archive (http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Med/Lbfm.html)
Simulation of "Little Boy" (http://beltoforion.de/article.php?a=little_boy) an interactive simulation of
"Little Boy"
Little Boy 3D Model (http://www.atomicarchive.com/Movies/index.shtml)
Hiroshima & Nagasaki Remembered (http://www.hiroshima-remembered.com/history/index.html)
information about preparation and dropping the Little Boy bomb
Little boy Nuclear Bomb at Imperial War museum London UK (jpg) (http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.
com/download/littleboy.jpg)

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