From Design News:
In 1988, author Richard Rhodes received a Pulitzer Prize for "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" in which he described the previously top-secret inner workings of the bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
He divulged — through his own personal research — what had been America's biggest secrets about the bombs, which were called Little Boy and Fat Man. In fact, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death on charges they had leaked atomic bomb secrets to Soviet agents.
But by his own admission, Rhodes has been topped by truck driver John Coster-Mullen of Waukesha, WI, who has built a highly accurate replica of the atomic bomb through an amazing piece of engineering research. His replica of a bomb casing is on display at the Wendover Airfield Museum in Utah. The precise inner workings of the bomb are disclosed in a self-printed book that Coster-Mullen sells on Amazon.com for $49.95.
He divulged — through his own personal research — what had been America's biggest secrets about the bombs, which were called Little Boy and Fat Man. In fact, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death on charges they had leaked atomic bomb secrets to Soviet agents.
But by his own admission, Rhodes has been topped by truck driver John Coster-Mullen of Waukesha, WI, who has built a highly accurate replica of the atomic bomb through an amazing piece of engineering research. His replica of a bomb casing is on display at the Wendover Airfield Museum in Utah. The precise inner workings of the bomb are disclosed in a self-printed book that Coster-Mullen sells on Amazon.com for $49.95.
That book is Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man. (makes a terrific Valentines Day gift!). In December 2008 Coster-Mullen was the subject of a fascinating article in the New Yorker by David Samuels:
Among other things, Coster-Mullen’s book makes clear that our belief in the secrecy of the bomb is a theological construct, adopted in no small part to shield ourselves from the idea that someone might use an atomic bomb against us. Surely, hostile powers could easily obtain the kind of information that Coster-Mullen has acquired, however painstakingly, in his spare time. Any nation that can master the challenges of the atomic-fuel cycle and produce a critical mass of uranium or plutonium, as Iran is reported to be on the verge of doing, would have little difficulty in producing a workable bomb. Given a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium, a small number of engineers working for a terrorist group like Al Qaeda or Hezbollah could easily assemble a homemade nuclear device.
But what does his wife think of all this?
Coster-Mullen's wife, Mary, a retired social worker who enjoys reading and knitting, knows how driven he is to document this piece of history.
"I don't think he'll ever be done," she said. No one else in the family is interested the way her husband is, including Jason, who works on communications as a private contractor in Baghdad and who has helped with the project. Mary said she doesn't understand a lot of the technical stuff in the book but enjoys stories about the people involved. When John begins to talk nonstop about the atomic bomb, as he often does, she's not immune from telling him to stop and "take out the garbage already."
Fellow truckers whom Coster-Mullen encounters on his nightly runs between Waukesha County and Chicago - at least those who know - are surprised. As Mary once said, the people who know that he drives a truck can't believe he wrote a book, and the people who know he wrote a book can't believe he drives a truck.
"I'm proud of him," she said. But "I told him, can't you write a romance novel?"
Thanks to John Foust for the tip on this fascinating (there, I said it again) story.
Comments