Robert Oppenheimer (The Los Almos Story, 2) [Paperback]

Judy Gursky (editor) (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Los Almos Story, 2 | Publication Date: December 4, 1999

Recollections from a friend and scientific colleague of the brilliant young director of the project that created the atomic bomb in Los Alamos during World War II.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Bacher, Professor Emeritus of Caltech, was a teacher and researcher at various universities before World War II. After working in the Radiation Laboratory at MIT, he joined the Los Alamos Laboratory to participate in the Manhattan Project. Later he served as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission and a member of the President's Scientific Advisory Committee.

Product Details

• Paperback: 55 pages
• Publisher: Los Alamos Historical Society (December 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941232220
• ISBN-13: 978-0941232227
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,139,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very technically accurate, April 17, 2005

By 

W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Robert Oppenheimer (The Los Almos Story, 2) (Paperback)

Bacher died just a few months ago, at a very old age. He and Hans Bethe (who also died recently) were some of the last luminaries left from the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos. This book, which was produced with the assistance of the Los Alamos Historical Society, is his biography of Oppenheimer, who directed the Lab during the War.

The book gives numerous personal anecdotes of Oppenheimer, including after the war. But it is perhaps the war years that will attract the most interest.

The book's technical accuracy is also excellent. Many biographies of scientists that you might read are written by people who often have at most an undergraduate degree in those fields. So sometimes the scientific explanations might be slightly off. But Bacher was a top physicist, and the technical observations in the book are spot on. At Los Alamos, Bacher headed the engineers, who actually built the bombs, while Fermi headed the scientists. Bacher reported directly to Oppenheimer.

Bacher is renowned for one impressive achievement. (Amongst others.) In 1945, when the hemispheres of fissile material were made (each half a critical mass), it was found that they were too large to fit into the bomb casings. It was too late in the war to redo the casings. So Bacher held each hemisphere in his gloved hands ("It felt warm") and lathed it down until it fitted into the casings. He probably remains the only human being to have ever done so.

1.0 out of 5 stars merely a pamphlet, March 11, 2010

By 

Galen Hammond (Orange Beach, Al) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Robert Oppenheimer (The Los Almos Story, 2) (Paperback)

This book was a major disappointment after just having read two dozen books on the Manhattan Project, beginning with "109 E. Palace", "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes and including "American Prometheus" "Day of Trinity" "Oppenheimer Shatterer of Worlds" and "The Manhattan Project" by Kelly.