START OF ATOMIC BOMB

Chronicle (Levin), 12 July 1946, Page 4

START OF ATOMIC BOMB

-Press Assoeiation

Dramatic Announceraent in 1914-18

By Telegraph—

WELLINGTON, July 11. " W e have just carried -out an experiment which leads us to l)elieve we have split the hydrogen atom. If this is so it is more impoftant than the war. We are carrying out confirmatory tests so 1 1 shall he a day or two late, Do l ho't say 'anything to tmyone in case it is wrong. " That was* the tenor ,of a letter received by Dr. Karl Compton, oue of tlve Ameriean seientists now visiting Newr Zealand when he was acting as organiser of the Inter-Allied Conference on antisubmarine detection devices in Paris in the" 1914-1918 war. It eame from Lord Rutherford, one of the British representatives at the conference. Telling a meeting hore tonight of this, I)r. Compton said had he realised the historic nature of the letter he would have preserved it. "That was the beginning of the atomic bomb," saicl Dr. Compton. "The atomic bomb is so built that it can be blown iiji wi.thout setting in motion a chain of action," added Dr. Compton. A questioner had asked whether there was any way of making snfe an unexploded atomic bomb? Dr. Compton said a safety device had been incorporated so that bombs in crashed aircraft coubl be safely dctonated if not already exploded.