A (RESTRICTED) HISTORY OF THE TRINITY TEST SHOT

July 16 is the sixtieth anniversary of the 1945 detonation of the
first nuclear explosive, a test codenamed Trinity, at Alamogordo,
New Mexico.

"A test of the atomic bomb was considered essential ... because of
the enormous step from the differential and integral experiments,
and theory, to a practical gadget," according to a "restricted"
Los Alamos history of the event.

"No one was content that the first trial of a [nuclear explosive]
should be over enemy territory, where, if the gadget failed, the
surprise factor would be lost and the enemy might be presented
with a large amount of active material in recoverable form."

The Los Alamos history, entitled "Trinity" by K.T. Bainbridge, was
removed from the Los Alamos web site a few years ago, along with
thousands of other unclassified technical reports.

The Los Alamos report library catalog states that access to the
Bainbridge history is now "restricted to selected government
agencies."

But a copy is available on the FAS web site.

See "Trinity," Los Alamos report no. LA-6300-H (94 pages, 4.3 MB
PDF file) here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/docs1/00317133.pdf

More Trinity-related resources are available online here:

http://www.trinityremembered.com/