BIRTH OF THE BOMB [Main Title]

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  • Title: BIRTH OF THE BOMB [Main Title]
  • Film Number: MGH 3445
  • Other titles:
  • Summary: A history of the development of the Atom bomb from 1938, when the Uranium atom was first split, to the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima.
  • Description: This film shows how the demands of war can accelerate scientific and technological development. It begins by looking at the pre-war developments in nuclear physics, then the various factors which gave the Allies a potential edge over the Germans. Firstly, the mass exodus by many of the most important German nuclear physicists in 1938/9. Secondly, the smuggling of Norway's entire stock of `heavy water' into France and then Britain, followed by the continued bombing and sabotage of the Norwegian plant. Despite these advantages it was not until 1941 that the British and Americans took an active interest in atomic research. Governmental scepticism being won over by the discovery in Britain in 1940 that a realistically sized bomb could be made with U-235. Sir Rudolph Peierls recalls that with the realisation that such a project was feasible it was considered that the work must be undertaken even if it would cost as much as a battleship, which he notes was a gross underestimation. Although it was now theoretically possible to build a bomb with U-235, refining this from Uranium was very difficult. Willard Libby explains that the principal problem at the time was the highly reactive Uranium Hexafluoride gas used to separate the isotopes from uranium. Despite these problems, Joseph Rotblat recalls that from 1940 scientists in Britain, including refugees like himself, worked night and day on a nuclear bomb. The rest of the film concentrates on the massive American resources mobilised to produce enough Fissionable material for a bomb. This enabled the pooling of research by a large body of internationally renowned nuclear scientists. Archive footage of the vast US plants constructed for this purpose and interviews with the many internationally eminent scientists brought together for the project provide a fascinating picture of the race to produce a bomb. Ironically, a race largely won as the Germans were, unbeknown to the Allies, unable to capitalise on their pre-war technological advantages. The scientists' ambivalent feelings, and in certain instances revulsion, at the awesome destructive power of the bomb, revealed at the first test and following Hiroshima, provide a sobering end to the film.
  • Alternative Title:
  • Colour: Colour (part B&W)
  • Digitised:
  • Object_Number: MGH 3445
  • Sound: Sound
  • Access Conditions: NON-IWM
  • Featured Period:
  • Production Date: 1970
  • Production Country: GB
  • Production Details: Peter Batty Productions (Production company) Batty, Peter (Production individual) Batty, Peter (Production individual) Batty, Peter (Production individual) Hanks, Lou (Production individual) Hawkes, Stan (Production individual)
  • Personalities, Units and Organisations: Pieirls, Rudolf (person) Libby, Willard (person) Rotblat, Joseph (person) Seaborg, Glen (person) Spedding, Frank (person) Zinn, Walter (person) Hilberry, Norman (person) Groves (General) (person) McMillan, Edwin Mattison (person) Frisch, Otto (person) Feynman, Richard (person) Tuck, James (person)
  • Keywords: sciences, physics: nuclear (object name) weapons, United States - bomb: atomic bomb & [R and D] (object name)
  • Physical Characteristics: Colour format: Colour (part B&W) Sound format: Sound Soundtrack language: English Title language: English
  • Technical Details: Format: 16mm Number of items/reels/tapes: 1 Footage: 1795 ft; Running time: 50 mins
  • HD Media:
  • Link to IWM Collections page:

    MGH 3445

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