Fat Man and Little Boy Page #4

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before it explodes.

Second, it's the weight problem.

For the slug to travel at the velocity

we need,

the gun barrel

would be so heavy, so thick,

I don't think we'd get the gadget

off the ground with a crane.

If they're talking about a slug

with a seven-inch diameter,

then you'd have to have a barrel

thickness of at least four inches.

I hope you guys find the music.

The way things are,

we can't even hum the tune.

Free discussion.

Two groups...

- I'm not comfortable with...

- Excuse me.

Seth, Deke, the gun barrel.

Robert, Michael, pre-detonation.

Damn it! Just, damn it!

Maybe it's the altitude.

But we're still just chalk

on a blackboard.

We're dead in the water.

Maybe we cast a lighter

gun barrel, find a new alloy.

The force would be too great.

We gotta smack these atoms together

to trigger a chain reaction.

We gotta concentrate the energy

and crush the mass.

All right, let's rethink this.

We have a gun barrel that's so heavy

we can't lift it with a plane.

To get the explosive power we need,

it's gotta be heavy.

Michael, come here!

When I squeeze this...

- ...what do I get?

- Juice.

No. I squeeze it, I get compression.

We get a hollow sphere

of plutonium,

and we compress it

with an explosion that goes in.

- An implosion.

- Chain reaction.

Boom!

- But, Seth, explosives go out.

- I know.

But we make one that goes in.

Jesus.

- Michael.

- Let's get the boys.

We'll meet down here in the canteen.

It's brilliant. The device is gonna be so

light that we don't need a gun barrel!

Got a match, soldier?

Sir, it's Michael and Seth!

I'm sorry to bother you.

But Seth had an idea.

He was thinking of an orange.

Yes, I was thinking of jumping

up and down on an orange.

- Crushing an orange.

- Crushing!

Crushing...the core.

Oh, God.

This could be very sweet.

- Where are the others?

- Canteen, they wanna kick it around.

- Perhaps it can wait till later?

- No, you go ahead.

- I'd have lost you anyway.

- Thank you.

Goddamn it.

Doctor!

- Come on!

- Double up, over here!

I'm sorry. We were looking for testing

sites and the bus got stuck.

You had a meeting last night.

You discussed the work in public.

We were discussing

Neddermeyer's...

- In public!

- A table in the back of the canteen.

- We were having a free discussion.

- Let's just talk about that.

I don't want free discussion.

I want compartmentalization.

I don't want theoreticians

knowing what engineers know.

- Listen to me...

- It is a security problem!

These kids are used to pinning

their best ideas on a board.

Ideas are community property.

It's a matter of principle.

You force my hand and there

won't be any free discussion

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