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ARTicles vol.6 i.2b: Notes on Heisenberg and the Bomb
JAN 5, 2008
Explores the Heisenberg’s reasoning behind never creating a bomb during World War Two.
In his essay “What is CopenhagenTrying to Tell Us?”Dr. Gerald Holton, a Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University, investigates Heisenberg’s stated reasons for never building a bomb. One prominent source of evidence is the “Farm Hall Transcripts,” a series of secret recordings that British Intelligence made of German scientists in their custody after World War II. One of these scientists was Heisenberg.
Professor Holton explains some of the issues that hindered German progress:
“One of the major mistakes the German scientists had made was to underestimate the likelihood of the other side to have the skill and wits to pursue the bomb project successfully. For example, hearing on August 6, 1945 on the radio about the first atomic bomb, they felt first it was a hoax…”
The Farm Hall Transcripts support this claim. They record Heisenberg’s reaction to the news of the bombing of Hiroshima:
“I still don’t believe a word about the bomb, but I may be wrong. I consider it perfectly possible that they have about ten tons of enriched uranium, but not that they can have ten tons of pure U235.”
In his book Hitler’s Uranium Club, Jeremy Bernstein explains Heisenberg’s remark:
“This estimate clearly illustrates Heisenberg’s confusion about the physics of atomic bombs. It is difficult to comprehend how he could have told the people at the German Army Ordnance or von Ardenne that 60 pounds or so was enough to make a bomb and now could talk about ten tons!”
Other comments from Heisenberg in the Farm Hall Transcriptsillustrate further barriers to the German Atomic Bomb Project:
“If it has been done with uranium-235, then we should be able to work it out properly. It just depends upon whether it is done with 50, 500, or 5,000 kilograms and we don’t know the order of magnitude . . .One can say that the first time large funds were made available in Germany was in the spring of 1942 after that meeting with Rust when we convinced him that we had absolutely definite proof that it could be done.”
Katie Rasor is a second-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard.
