Letter from Rollin Gillespie to President Harry S. Truman

atomic amm. 3218 Windsor Road Austin, Texas Phone 7-3742 20 January 1950 President Truman White House Washington, D.C. 692-8 miscel Pro Dear Sir: This letter proposes a method of constructing a hydrogen bomb. I have been promoting the lithium hydride type of hydrogen bomb since 1945 without getting a good argument why it will not work. I am going over the heads of people delegated to handle such matters because I first went to them without success, getting brush off replies, or replies which ignored and misunderstood important factors in the proposal. The uranium fission bomb proposal met a similar reception before it was taken directly to the White House. I therefore submit this proposal directly to you at this time. I propose to construct a large sphere of concrete containing a capsule of lithium hydride at its center. The sphere would be surrounded by a shell of high explosive, such as lead azide, or possibly TNT, which in turn would be confined by an outer shell of concrete. The explosive would be detonated simultaneously at many points on its surface by means of a branched fuze, thus generating an inward moving spherical shock wave in the concrete. The entire energy of this wave would be transported to the center of the sphere, where it would heat the lithium hydride to a very high temperature. This action would be intended to set off the thermonuclear reaction between lithium and hydrogen to produce helium, releasing three times as much energy per pound of material as is released by the fission of heavy atoms. To gain a rough idea of the temperature which might be achieved without the help of the thermonuclear reaction, assume one ton, or one million grams, of explosive. If each gram releases 1000 calories, half of which moves outward, and half inward, there would be 500 million calories in the inward moving wave. Neglecting losses, this would all arrive in the central region of the sphere at the same time, piling up 500 million calories in a capsule of perhaps 100 grams of lithium hydride. The temperature would be raised several million degrees. It is my opinion that such a test should be done only with government sanction, and only in some remote place. HARRY NATIONAL TRUMAN LIBRARY ARCHIVES RECORDS SERVICE If spherical shock waves will initiate the thermonuclear GOVERNME reaction, so also will multiply enhanced jets. Singly enhanced jets are the tiny, ultra fast jets produced by shaped explosive charges such as make the bazooka warhead so effective againgt armor plate. I have prepared an elaborate experimental program