American Nuclear Explosive Devices

A possible book and/or series covering every American nuclear bomb ever built (or at least, all the ones I can get good data on...

In working on my book on Project Orion, I of course did a great deal of research on nuclear explosive design. And the thing I found was that there is very little available out there on the design of the bombs, warheads, RV's, etc. in the American nuclear arsenal. Drawings are plentiful... but are most likely to be crude, inaccurate or both. So some time back I decided that what the world needs is a book that brings together accurate diagrams of all the nuclear explosives the US has built over the years.

Obviously some are better defined than others. The bomb casings for the likes of Fat Man and Little Boy are on public display, and I have sought them out for physical measuring to create diagrams. Others, like Thin Man, are known only from a few photos. Others are even less well documented than that.

And beyond the difficulty in obtaining good external geometry data for some of these devices, getting good interior design data is far, far harder. And so some devices like the Gadget will have diagrams explaining the inner workings; other devices will not. Some speculation will be included, but only where such speculation is reasonable and supported by facts.

It is my hope to get this published in physical book form. It is being created in 11X17 format... bigger than most books, but I think appropriate for the subject. Each device will have, where applicable and possible, diagrams internal and external; data on development, weights, capabilities and history; information on delivery systems; graphs showing the blast effects. If anyone has an "in" with a publisher who might be interested in this, by all means let me (and them) know!

You can order a PDF version of the first part of American Nuclear Explosive Devices below. Part 1 contains sections on Thin Man, Little Boy and the Trinity Gadget.If there is interest, I will release more sections as they are completed. This PDF file is formatted for 11X17. This is still somewhat preliminary; text, layout and diagrams can all be expected to change prior to final publication. But this gets the idea across, I believe.

Click picture to see more!

ANED issue 01
This issue contains articles on :
"Thin Man:" The first known nuclear bomb design, a failed and aborted attempt to build a plutonium "gun-type" bomb
"Little Boy:" the uranium gun-type bomb used over Hiroshima
Trinity "Gadget:" The first atomic bomb to actually detonate

7 megabyte PDF file.

ANED 01 download order: $4.00

Critiques, suggestions and input are always appreciated.

Contact me by e-mail

scottlowther AT ix DOT netcom DOT com.

You will need to delete the spam-blocking capitalized bits in the e-mail address. It's clumsy, annoying and definitely non-professional looking... but unfortunately, spammers read email addresses and target you for massive amounts of junk mail if you don't play little tricks.