Lot 73
  • 73

FEYNMAN, RICHARD P. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT "ATOMIC BOMB AS MILITARY WEAPON", CA 1946

Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
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Description

  • "Atomic Bomb as Military Weapon," ca 1946.
Autograph manuscript, 2 pp (8 x 10 1/2 in) in blue ink and pencil on white paper with Cornell watermark, creases where previously folded.  WITH: Feynman's copy of: [Department of State], The International Control of Atomic Energy. Scientific Information Transmitted to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission. June 14, 1946 - October 14, 1946. Washington, D.C: The United States Government Printing Office, [1946]. 8vo. Original printed wrappers.  WITH: TOLMAN, RICHARD C. Typed letter signed "Richard C. Tolman", to Richard Feynman, December 21, 1946, on United States Representative United States Atomic Energy Commission letterhead. Informing him that the article that he co-authored has been published in the above.

Catalogue Note

"WHAT IS NEW ABOUT THE ATOMIC BOMB. ANY NATION CAN DECIDE ON DESTRUCTION OF OTHER NATION (NOT NEW — BEEN DONE BEFORE) — AND IN ONE DAY CAN CARRY OUT THAT DESTRUCTION. LIABLE OF COURSE TO OWN DESTRUCTION — BUT CAN STILL DESTROY OTHER." In his early days as professor of theoretical physics at Cornell, Feynman gave a number of talks and lectures on the atom bomb. The present manuscript was surely written very soon after arriving at Cornell, as we do not yet see some of the more ethical dimensions of his papers on the topic that would follow later in 1946-47, where he starts to turn his focus more directly on the peace-time applications of atomic power. He makes mention of the Smythe Report, published by the Princeton University Press in August 1945, just a few days after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Feynman's article published in the International Control of Atomic Energy Report, co-written with R. F. Bacher, Feynman's colleague at Cornell (and former head of the Bomb Physics Division at Los Alamos Laboratory), is entitled "Introduction to Atomic Energy." It is interesting to note that Richard Tolman, who sent Feynman the pamphlet along with the letter, also worked on the Manhattan Project, and went on to teach, like Feynman did, at Caltech.