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ACT
1, SCENE 2
K.
***off stage*** General.
GG.
*** off Stage*** Mrs. Openheimer.
***
O. comes in mixing a shaker of martinis followed by K. leading GG. ***
K.
Here’s General Groves, ready for a drink, I’m sure. What worlds have you
saved today, General?
O.
Come in General. Have a seat. These martinis’ll be ready in a minute. I’ve
invited Bohr, Fermi and Fuchs to join us. You probably don’t know Klaus Fuchs;
he did a lot of the theoretical work and can probably answer some of your
questions about how well things went yesterday.
GG.
Thanks. The plane leaves for Washington early tomorrow morning. I need answers
tonight. You and your team did a magnificent job, Robert. What an explosion! I
had my doubts especially when you scientists here at site Y with only a day to
go, botched that dummy test supposed to show you could push the plutonium
together symmetrically.
***Telephone
off-stage K. goes to answer it***
GG.
When that happened some idiot scrawled a nasty poem on the lab wall.
O.
I’ve not heard about that?
GG.
It said
***pulls out piece of paper. Knock
at door answered by K.***
"From
this crude lab that spawned a dud
His
neck to Truman’s axe uncurled
Lo,
the embattled General stood
And
fired a flop heard round the world."
Bunch
of arrogant bastards. I can tell you, if the test had flopped yesterday, it
wouldn’t have been only my neck that would have gotten the chop. You and your
science buddies would have been right up in front of Congress with me explaining
where you buried two billion dollars.
***
Kitty enters with Bohr and Fuchs, and angrily pours herself a drink without
offering one to the others present.***
K.
These gentlemen finally arrived, but Enrico’s called to say he’ll be late.
He claims the Army car he was in broke down on the way back from the test site.
I guess that’s your fault General.
GG
Professor. Dr. Fuchs, I don’t think we’ve met.
B.
General, good evening.
Fu.
Good evening, Sir.
O.
Neils, Klaus. How are you? Please
sit down.
B.
Hello Robert
Fu.
Mrs. Oppenheimer. How are Toni and Peter?.
K.
The children are doing fine, Klaus. They’ve been asking after you.
O.
Enrico went to the site to get readings from the measuring instruments. He was
worried about radioactive fallout on nearby ranches. I’m sure he’ll be along
shortly. Let me pour everyone a drink.
***
Oppenheimer pours drinks and he and Bohr try to light their pipes.
GG.
Dr. Oppenheimer, I want to say again, in front of your colleagues, what a
magnificent job you and your team did to make this thing work. I’m writing to
the Secretary of War to tell him that it was successful beyond our most
optimistic expectations. I’ve had to step on a few toes in Washington and some
of those people would like to see me court-martialed. But you‘ve come through,
and I’m proud of all you’ve done. I’m going to get some of those S.O.B.s
in Washington who tried to stop us. I’m really going to enjoy telling Admiral
Leahy … he said the bomb would never work.
He thinks he is such an expert on explosives, and has been fighting us
all along. They’ll all be singing a different tune now.
O.
Well General, there was many a time I felt discouraged myself and thought we’d
taken on a job too big for mankind, that perhaps the gods didn’t mean us to
have this kind of fire. I often wished I were back in Berkeley with my students
… and we may yet rue the day we brought this dragon to life.
GG.
Nonsense, Robert. This bomb’s going to win the war for us and fast. You’ll
all be heroes. Stuff that mystic rubbish about your Eastern gods.
***Fermi
comes in***
F.
‘ello everyone. Sorry I’m late Kitty. I kiss your hand. These army cars are
falling apart. It’s the roads are doing it. These roads are like how you
say rough as bear’s arse, yes.
B. Enrico.
Fu,
Hello Dr Fermi.
O.
Enrico come in.
GG.
Dr Fermi.
O.
Here Enrico, let me pour you a drink. Did you get readings?
F.
I am getting some but many instruments and cameras were ruined. The SES soldiers
supposing to dig them in and shield them did half-assed job. I toured the site
this morning and found a mess. Instruments were not having enough protections.
*** picks up teddy bear from chair and sits***
The children are already in bed ? Ah,
in Italy there is always children. Here we have no time for. It is sad making.
Film in the cameras, even those not being destroyed by the blast, is
mostly fogged, useless. A lot went right off-scale, so they tell us nothing
except that the blast was bigger than we expecting. It will be taking weeks to
have perfect idea of how efficient the implosion was being.
O.
Well, that can’t be helped now. I just hope no one got high radiation doses
out of the Trinity test.
GG.
Robert, why did you call this test Trinity? Some religious significance?
O.
Do you know any of the work of the poet John Donne? I guess they didn’t teach
you that at West Point? ***grins***
Batter my heart, three persone’d God; for you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me,’ and bend
Your face, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
Maybe
that’s where it came from. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter.
GG.
I was taught plenty at West Point, but we didn’t waste time on useless poetry.
What kind of a poem is that anyway? It doesn’t make any sense. That’s the
trouble with you eggheads.
O.
It’s great literature, General. Some people like it; some don’t.
GG.
You longhairs are always patronizing me. Don’t forget I’ve caught plenty of
your mistakes. Well, if I got you right Dr. Fermi, you haven’t gotten precise
detail yet on the yield of the gadget? We report to the Interim Committee
Thursday, and I want all the information I can get.
O.
No. It’ll take time to analyze the data from whatever pressure instruments
survived and do the calculations. Enrico has an estimate though from his own pet
experiment.
GG.
I saw you, Dr Fermi, dropping scraps of paper just as the blast wave hit us.
What was that about?
***
F. stands and mimes paper dropping***
F.
A simple way. When I am seeing the wave coming over the desert floor, I begin
releasing small pieces of paper. As the wave is hitting us, it is carrying the
scraps with it, and the distance they go is depending on pressure from the
blast. The piece of paper going farthest says the peak pressure.
GG.
Ingenious, Doctor, I’m sure. So what did these bits of paper tell you?
F.
Well General, you remember we are setting off a hundred tons of TNT a month ago,
and I calibrate my confetti method with that shot. From that I am estimating
Trinity as 18,000 tons and I’m betting the final number’ll be close.
GG.
Remind me, what were the estimates before the test?
O.
The theory was worked out by Klaus, so he‘s the best person to tell you how it
should have turned out. The difficult calculations were done by Richard Feynman
and his girls with their mechanical calculators.
GG.
I’ve heard all about this Feynman from my security people. If he’d spend
less time playing games and cracking the combinations of other people’s safes,
maybe we’d win this war sooner. Dr. Fooks, what’d the theory predict?
Fu.
Sir, the yield for this type of bomb is very difficult to calculate because it
depends on the uniformity of the spherical shock wave as it moves in to push the
plutonium together to give the critical mass for an explosion. The gadget had a
sphere of plutonium weighing about six kilograms. The timing pulses to set off
the blocks of TNT needed to be …
GG.
Dr. uh, uh Fuchs. I’m not asking for a lesson on how the bomb works. Just tell
me the estimate for how big a bang we got for our buck?
Fu.
General, we estimated a 20% efficiency for fissioning which would gives yield of
8.8 by ten to the twelve joules.
GG.
Well, damn it, what’s that in TNT numbers?
Fu.
A … a … an explosion of the size that would occur with 21,000 short
tons of TNT.
GG.
Thank you. We finally got it out of you. Dr. Fermi’s scraps of paper gave a
pretty close estimate then. Dr. Oppenheimer, you had better keep that method
under wraps or Congress will think all these other gold plated instruments
you’ve been buying weren’t really necessary.
***
There is a knock on the door and Feynman comes in. ***
Fyn.
Hi, Oppie. the door was open, I’ve brought the book back. ***hands Oppie the
book***
O.
Richard. Come in. I’ll bet you thought it was nuts, eh?
Fyn.
It wasn’t so … Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you had a party going.
K.
Hi Dick, I wouldn’t describe it as a party.
Fyn.
Hi Kitty.
F.
Hello Richard.
Fu.
Dick.
GG.
Mr. Feynman
O.
It’s more of a celebratory dinner. We couldn’t let yesterday go by without
marking it in some way. *** Fyn.
stands at front right of table***
.
Any excuse for a jug of wine.
Fyn.
Wow. This is a top brass party. Enrico, General, *** mock bow*** Hello Niels, or
have I still got to call you Nicholas Baker for security reasons.
B.
**laughs** Good to see you Richard. My son Aage has got so used to being called
Jim Baker; he says that whenever he is not so sure of any scientific paper he is
submitting he’ll sign it Jim Baker.
Fyn.
I had better get out of your way then you can talk big things.
O.
No you don’t Richard; you’ll at least sit down for a drink. How about
a Martini?
Fyn.
Spare me Oppie we’ve done calculations on the strength of your martinis in
the Theory Group. Some of us felt it would be cheaper and just as effective to
use them instead of the bomb. And I’m going on to a party, well probably
several parties, after I’ll have a beer. How are you Kitty?
K.
I’m OK Dick, but I don’t think I would make it round all your parties.
Fyn.
Everybody is partying our there. It’s fantastic . Everybody is over the moon
it worked so well. You know, I actually saw it yesterday but actually saw it.
B.
But lot’s of us saw it, Richard.
Fyn.
Yeh. But everybody had these dark glasses on. I threw mine away.
F.
What! That was crazy thing to do.
Fyn.
Well, I figured what would hurt your eyes would be the ultra-violet and I was
looking through a truck windshield so I knew that would cut the UV.
O.
Here we are Richard. **hands Fyn, a drink** Never the one to follow instructions
were you.
Fyn.
Thanks. When the first searing flash came it was so startling, even when you
were expecting it I dived down and saw a purple splotch on the floor of the
truck. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that was the after-glow on my
retina. So I climbed up again fast and saw the brilliant white light change to
yellow and then to orange and then spread into a big orange ball with a bright
center and black edges. The science journalist who was with me …
F.
William Lawrence.
Fyn.
Yeh. Well he dived down and didn’t surface again till the boom hit us a minute
and a half later. This beer’s going down nicely, Oppie. And there was one of
your colonels, General, next to the truck. He shouted "I think the
long-haired boys have finally lost it". ***Laughter***
F.
Yes, it was fantastic sight. I was at Base Camp, ten miles from the explosion. I
am holding a large board with a piece of welding glass covering face. I first
see intense flash of light followed by hot on my body. When I looked away , the
countryside is looking brighter than high noon. When I am looking back through
the dark glass I see flames rising. After few seconds the flames are dying out
and I see a giant column of smoke and dust rising with a huge fat head on it
like mushroom. It is rising up above the clouds until over 30,000 feet, I think.
Fu.
Yes, I saw something very similar and I also noticed the blue flashes of
Cherenkov radiation shooting out of the sides of the cloud.
GG.
What the hell is Cherenkov radiation? Sounds like a Russian invention.
Fu.
Yes sir. The Russian physicist P. A. Cherenkov found that when a particle moves
through a medium such as air faster than the speed of light, ---
GG.
What’s this Oppenheimer? You gave me lectures that nothing is faster than
light.
O.
That rule General says that nothing can move faster than light in a vacuum.
High-energy particles, like the ones we made in our explosion, can start out
faster and they kick off blue light like a bow wave in their wake. That’s what
Klaus was seeing.
F.
And were you hearing about the soldier at the test site who was being on guard
duty the day before and then got drunk. He was, how do you say, sleeping it off
when the gadget exploded and was throwing him off his bunk. When he climbed from
the floor, he swore no more liquor forever.**Laughter***
GG.
I can tell you some of the information my men brought in today. ***Pulls paper
from pocket*** The light was seen clearly at Albuquerque, Santa Fe, El Paso …
anywhere up to 180 miles. The sound reached a hundred miles and two secondary
explosions took place in the cloud which climbed to about 41000 feet. The iron
tower the bomb stood on was completely vaporized and, according to this, your
people think the two other explosions came from iron vapor in the cloud igniting
with oxygen. A reinforced steel tower half a mile away, about six-stories high
was ripped off its foundations and lay on the ground twisted like a candy stick.
That was some explosion and I’ll have to let Washington know that I
don’t consider even the Pentagon safe from a bomb like this.
B.
So everybody is celebrating. Well, they have all worked hard.
Fyn.
Nearly everybody is celebrating. The only person I saw with his head down was
Bob Wilson. Crazy really because it was Bob who brought many of us here from
Princeton, including me. He
gave a stunning speech about the forces of light being lined up against the
forces of darkness.
B.
What was wrong with Bob?
Fyn.
He just said "It’s a terrible thing that we have done".
O.
**quietly** Bob Wilson never stops thinking.
He said when he came from Princeton that he was suspending his conscience
to come here.
Fyn.
I went up to the bomb site yesterday afternoon. It’s amazing. For a half mile
around you can see this crater that looks like its made of jade; the sand has
turned to green glass. There’s not a living thing for a mile around; just a
few burned stumps of bushes and carbonized remains of lizards and snakes. It’s
eerie; everything is just dead.
O.
I hope you were careful about how much radiation you got.
Fyn.
I had an SES soldier with me with a Geiger counter. It went off-scale, but I
didn’t stay there long. I picked up a piece of the fused sand and we roared
out of there.
GG.
We did great.
Fyn.
Yes General, we did and just think how much faster we could’ve got it done
without all your army bullshit.
O.
Now Richard, we’re here to celebrate not fight about who did what.
Fyn.
I’m not fighting Oppie. Honest. I am as proud as hell of what we have done.
But . …
G.G.
Let him say what he wants to say, Robert. You scientists think different. I’ve
spent a couple of years trying to understand that; let me try to understand some
more.
Fyn.
We know what you think of us General. Your opening speech to your people on the
site here soon got around. ***Imitates Groves delivery***. "Your task will
not be easy. At great expense we have gathered here at Los Alamos the largest
collection of crackpots ever seen".
GG.
You shouldn’t believe every rumor you hear, Mr. Feynman.
Fyn.
Yeh, well we do think different. You know when I was planning to move here,
Oppie went out of his way to find my wife …
K:
Arlene
Fyn.
… who was sick, a place in a Sanatorium in Albuquerque and rang her to tell
her about it **(His mind drifts off for a second)** It was the first
long-distance telephone call she’d ever had in her life. But what did your
people do, General? They censored her letters to me and tried to make her change
how she wrote them.
O.
That’s not fair Richard, I tried to help but anybody would have helped her.
Arlene was very ill.
GG.
Keeping this project secret is one of the toughest things we’ve had to
do. If the Germans, the Japs or the Russians learned about this, it could have
compromised our entire war effort. My people were just doing their job.
Fyn.
That’s what I’m questioning, General. Was their job helping or hindering?
GG.
We tried to stop any information leaking out of here. That’s helped us get the
bomb first. This is an army project and we’re at war. I could have put you
people in uniform, but Dr. Oppenheimer and some of his Nobel laureate chums
talked me out of that. You should be thankful for the freedom we did give you.
Fyn.
And did this sort of thing help, General? Arlene once cut up one of her letters
to me into pieces making a jigsaw puzzle for fun. Your people instructed me to
***uses "official" voice*** "Please tell your wife we don’t
have time to play games around here". ***angrily*** SHE WAS DYING FOR
CHRISAKE. What time had she got?
K.
Don’t think about that tonight, Dick.
O.
Relax Richard. This is a time for celebration. We’re all on the same side
here. There is no reason to get mad at the army.
Fyn.
I’m not mad, honest, Oppie. I’m just trying to illustrate my point. Do you
want a couple more stories? When we were coming out from Princeton, we were told
to get our tickets from different railway stations so no one would figure a big
contingent from the Princeton Lab was shipping out. Well, I figured everybody
else was doing that so one person coming from Princeton Junction wouldn’t
matter.
O.
Bending the rules again Feynman.
Fyn.
When I bought my ticket the guy said "Oh, you’re the one all those tons
of material are for". ***(to Groves)*** You had people distributed all over
New York State buying train tickets but all the equipment, our counters and
other gear, shipped out of Princeton Junction. Even the ticket office knew all
about it.
GG.
You don't seem to realize. This is the greatest strategic secret of the war, and
its importance goes far beyond defeating the Japs. Anything, anything that we
can do to keep this secret secure, will be done, by you civilians as well as by
the Army.
Fyn.
General, your security is a farce. Nobody cares what we are doing here. Someone
had the bright idea to start a rumor in town that we are building an electric
rocket - think of the electric cord that would need. Anyway, Bob Serber and I
took a couple of girls to a bar in Santa Fe and tried to get the rumor started.
We talked it up in a loud voice, but nobody paid any attention. Finally, I went
over to a drunk at the bar, grabbed him by his lapels and yelled at him,
"Do you know what we are doing at Los Alamos? We are building an electric
rocket." Do you think he cared? He said, "Yeh? Is that right? Have a
drink on me." And then went to sleep. Nobody cares a nickel what we are
doing, and all your security is just keeping us from doing our job.
And here’s my favorite about censoring letters - I discovered, by
accident, that if you divide 1 by 243 you get 0.004 115 226 337 … magic
isn’t it. Can you see the lovely rhythm of that Klaus?
Fu.
Yes, It breaks into sequences of three digits … 004, then adds one to every
digit … 115, then one again … 226, and so on …extraordinary. Do you think
there‘s some deep mathematics behind it or is it just a lovely accident?
Fyn.
I don’t know so I wrote a bunch of people to see if anybody else knew. I got a
stiff message quoting regulation 4e *** official voice again*** "Codes,
ciphers of any form will not be used. Crosses, Xs or other markings of a similar
nature are equally objectionable". Wow!
GG.
They were doing their job. I don’t see any significance in this number you
found.
Fyn.
And meanwhile there were holes under the perimeter fence that I used frequently.
O.
Oh Richard. Just between this dinner group, please. We have to confess we
knew about the holes and kept them under surveillance. We let them be so that
the local tribes could sneak in to see the 12 cent movies.
***(Laughter
deflates the tension)***
Fyn.
Well, I’ve shot my mouth off I didn’t mean to spoil anybody’s fun.
O.
It’s OK, Richard. We can see you’re on a high.
Fyn.
Yeh, I am . I repeat I’m as proud as hell at what we’ve done. Maybe we
can end the war soon. I must be on my way. Can we take your Buick, Klaus?
***walks round table to K.***
Fu.
Sure, you know where the keys are. Don’t forget it only starts half the time.
K.
Yes, Richard, you’d better hurry or all the pretty girls will have gone.
Fyn
Bye everyone. ***kisses K. *** No
offence General.
F.
Ciao Dick.
B.
Goodbye Richard.
Fu.
See you later Dick.
***Oppie
sees him to the door.***
O.
Bye Richard. Have fun.
Fyn.
I will. Sorry if I was a bit aggressive with GG in there.
***As
Feynman leaves, the telephone rings. Kitty takes it-***
B.
That young man’s one of brightest we’ve got.
GG.
He’ll need some corners knocked off him if he’s to get very far.
B.
He’s been very helpful to me. Everyone else just says "Yes professor, yes
professor", but Richard will talk back and argue when I say something
controversial.
K
. There’s a call for you, General.
GG.
Excuse me. ***GG leaves the room and can be heard on the telephone***
GG.
Groves. Yes Colonel, what is it that can’t wait? ***(count 5)***
shouting***--- DAMN NEWSPAPER REPORTERS. Didn’t you tell them it was an
accidental explosion of munitions at the base? ***(count 5)***. Well, tell them again.
We had to be ready to evacuate people nearby because there were gas
cylinders that might have ruptured. –***(count 5)***-- What do you mean they
don’t believe us. –***(count 5)***-- Tell that base commander at Alamagordo
this is the official line and he’d better tell those newspaper snoops the same
thing, damn it. That’s what happened, there’s no other story. Colonel, I’m
holding you personally responsible for making sure this is the only story gets
into the papers. ***(count 5)***. All right. If there’s more trouble, I’ll
be back in my quarters by 2300. ***Hangs up noisily and re-enters***
GG.
Bastards. Sorry for the interruption. Newspaper reporters think they can print
anything they want.
K.
We live in a democracy, General,
O.
Those steaks should be about done. If I can get Elsie’s attention, maybe we
can eat now.
***Leaves
the room to bring dinner. Interlocutor walks center stage***
Interlocutor.
There will be an intermission while the Oppenheimers and their
guests eat dinner.
Act 2 |