Dawn Over Zero: The Story of the Atomic Bomb

By William L. Laurence

On August 6, 1945, the world was electrified by the news that an American Army bomber had dropped an atomic bomb, with an explosive power equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, on the important Japanese military center of Hiroshima. Three days later another bomb, of improved design and even greater power, was dropped on Nagasaki. The following day, Aug. 10, the Japanese sued for peace.

Newspapers and magazines throughout the world printed many thousands of words about the new weapon and the scientific developments that had made it possible. These stories were based largely on official War Department releases prepared by William L. Laurence, science reporter for The New York Times. At the request of the War Department, Mr. Laurence had been granted a leave by The Times several months earlier.

Mr. William L. Laurence was the only newspaper man permitted by the War Department to go to all the plants and inspect the processes of production of the atomic bomb, the only newspaper man allowed to witness the secret trial of the bomb in New Mexico, and the only newspaper man who witnessed the actual dropping of one of the bombs on Japan, from a plane above Nagasaki.

This book, first published in 1946, is the full story, so far as it may yet be revealed, of the atom bomb, written by the man who is unquestionably the best qualified to write it for the layman.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eschenburg Press
• Release date: Jun 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781787206014

William L. Laurence

William Leonard Laurence (March 7, 1888 - March 19, 1977) was a Jewish Lithuanian-born American journalist known for his science journalism writing of the 1940s and 1950s while working for The New York Times. He won two Pulitzer Prizes and, as the official historian of the Manhattan Project, was the only journalist to witness the Trinity test and the atomic bombing of Nagasaki. He is credited with coining the iconic term “Atomic Age” which became popular in the 1950s. He was born Leib Wolf Siew in Salantai (Russian Empire, now Lithuania) and emigrated to the U.S. in 1905, after participating in the Russian Revolution of 1905. He attended Harvard University, Harvard Law School, and Boston University, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1913. During World War I, he served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps, and in 1919 attended the University of Besançon in France. In 1926 he began his career as a journalist, working for The World of New York City. In 1930 he began working at The New York Times, specializing where possible in reporting on scientific issues. He married Florence Davidow in 1931. In 1934, Laurence co-founded the National Association of Science Writers. In 1936 he covered the Harvard Tercenary Conference of Arts and Sciences, and he and four other science reporters received the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Reporting. For his 1945 coverage of the atomic bomb, beginning with the eyewitness account from Nagasaki, he won a second Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1946. He published an account of the Trinity test that same year, Dawn Over Zero, and continued to work at the Times through the 1940s and 1950s. Two further books followed in 1950 and 1951. In 1956, he was present at the testing of a hydrogen bomb at the Pacific Proving Grounds. That same year, he also became appointed Science Editor of the New York Times and served in this capacity until he retired in 1964. Laurence died in 1977 in Majorca, Spain, aged 89.

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Text originally published in 1946 under the same title.

© Eschenburg Press 2017, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

DAWN OVER ZERO:

The Story of the Atomic Bomb

by

WILLIAM L. LAURENCE

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

NOTE TO EDITORS 4

INTRODUCTION 5

OFFICIAL WAR DEPARTMENT RELEASE 7

Bombardier an 8th A. F. Veteran 8

In Storm Soon After Take-Off 10

ARTICLES 14

DRAMA OF THE ATOMIC BOMB FOUND CLIMAX IN JULY 16 TEST 14

LIGHTNING BLEW UP DUMMY ATOM BOMB 21

ATOM BOMB BASED ON EINSTEIN THEORY 25

ATOMIC FACTORIES 29

ENGINEERING VISION IN ATOMIC PROJECT 33

CASES EXPLAIN SIZE OF ATOMIC PLANTS 37

SCIENTISTS ‘CREATE’ IN ATOMIC PROJECT 41

ELEMENT 94 KEY TO ATOMIC PUZZLE 45

PLUTONIUM LIFTED BY NEW CHEMISTRY 49

ATOMIC KEY TO LIFE IS FEASIBLE NOW 52

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 55

NOTE TO EDITORS

WAR DEPARTMENT

WASHINGTON, D. C.

Republic 6700

INFORMATION APPROVED FOR PURIFICATION ON ATOMIC BOMBS

NOTE TO EDITORS:

The following releases were prepared as background material on the Atomic Bomb Project.

Much of the scientific background of these releases was prepared by William L. Laurence, Science Writer of The New York Times. A Pulitzer Prize Winner and one of the first to write of the possibilities of atomic energy, Mr. Laurence was granted leave by The Times to come with the Project.

Extension 7-6341

Lt.-Col. William A. Consodine

Major John F. Moynahan

Lieut. C. O. Robinson

Extension 7-8341

Lt.-Col. Clyde H. Mathews

Capt. Kilburn R. Brown

INTRODUCTION

On Aug. 6, 1945, the world was electrified by the news that an American Army bomber had dropped an atomic bomb, with an explosive power equivalent to 20,000 tons of TNT, on the important Japanese military center of Hiroshima. Three days later another bomb, of improved design and even greater power, was dropped on Nagasaki. The following day, Aug. 10, the Japanese sued for peace.

Newspapers and magazines throughout the world printed many thousands of words about the new weapon and the scientific developments that had made it possible. These stories were based largely on official War Department releases prepared by William L. Laurence, science reporter for The New York Times. At the request of the War Department, Mr. Laurence had been granted a leave by The Times several months earlier.

Mr. Laurence was the only newspaper man permitted by the War Department to go to all the plants and inspect the processes of production of the atomic bomb, the only newspaper man allowed to witness the secret trial of the bomb in New Mexico, and the only newspaper man who witnessed the actual dropping of one of the bombs on Japan, from a plane above Nagasaki.

Mr. Laurence was selected for this assignment because of his demonstrated ability as an expositor of scientific developments during his fifteen years as science reporter for The New York Times, in the course of which he won the Pulitzer Prize for reporting in 1937; and because he had written the first widely circulated newspaper story about the possibilities of atomic energy, in The New York Times of May 5, 1940.

OFFICIAL WAR DEPARTMENT RELEASE

From the issue of September 9, 1945

ATOMIC BOMBING OF NAGASAKI TOLD

BY FLIGHT MEIER

Seething Pillar of Fire Rose 60,000 Feet From Blast—Planes High Up Rocked

ELECTRICAL STORM ON TRIP

Two Other B-29’s Escorted Strike Ship—Enemy Flak Met Going in to the Target

Mr. Laurence, science writer for THE NEW YORK TIMES and. a Pulitzer Prize winner, is a special consultant to the Manhattan Engineer District, the War Department’s special service that developed the atomic bomb.

By WILLIAM L. LAURENCE

WITH THE ATOMIC BOMB MISSION TO JAPAN, Aug. 9 (Delayed)—We are on our way to bomb the mainland of Japan. Our flying contingent consists of three specially designed B-29 Super-forts, and two of these carry no bombs. But our lead plane is on its way with another atomic bomb, the second In three days, concentrating in its active substance an explosive energy equivalent to 20,000 and, under favorable conditions, 40,000 tons of TNT.

We have several chosen targets. One of these is the great industrial and shipping center of Nagasaki, on the western shore of Kyushu, one of the main islands of the Japanese homeland.

I watched the assembly of this man-made meteor during the past two days, and was among the small group of scientists and Army and Navy representatives privileged to be present at the ritual of its loading in the Superfort last night, against a background of threatening black skies torn open at intervals by great lightning flashes.

It is a thing of beauty to behold, this gadget. In its design went millions of man-hours of what is without doubt the most concentrated intellectual effort in history. Never before had so much brain-power been focused on a single problem.

This atomic bomb is different from the bomb used three days ago with such devastating results on Hiroshima.

I saw the atomic substance before it was placed inside the bomb. By itself it is not at all dangerous to handle. It is only under certain conditions, produced in the bomb assembly, that it can be made to yield up its energy, and even then it gives only a small fraction of its total contents—a fraction, however, large enough to produce