ATOMIC ENERGY: A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes under the Auspices of the United States Government

First English edition, reprinted from very scarce U.S. Government Printing Office edition. With a number of formula and some diagrams. Small 4to, 245 x 153 mm., in the publisher's original buff paper wrappers printed in black, now housed in an attractive fold-over case of tan buckram with a black morocco label gilt ruled and lettered. iv, 144 pp. A fine and surprisingly fresh copy of this very scarce printing, the wrappers with only some minor spotting, the text near as pristine.

Edizione: very scarce first british issue of ?the smyth report?, announcing the birth of a new world order and a new ?age? in human history. ?a remarkably full and candid account of the development work carried out between 1940 and 1945 by the american directed but internationally recruited team of physicists,under the code name of ?manhattan district?, which culminated in the production of the first atomic bomb.? - pmm.<br> commonly called "the smyth report" due to its somewhat unwieldy name, this was reprinted from the issue released by the united states government printing office and precedes the first trade edition published by princeton university press. the text is an administrative history written by physicist henry dewolf smyth about the allied world war ii effort to develop the atomic bomb. the mimeographed prepublication issue was released to the press on august 12, 1945, after the atomic bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki on august 6 and 9. it was set by typewriter and printed on mimeograph machines in offices at the war department. that issue is extremely scarce and usually found badly worn or damaged. <br> general leslie groves ordered smyth to write the report at los alamos during the later days of the manhattan project. he gave two reasons for its production. the first was for there to be an official u.s. government history and statement about the development of the atomic bombs. thus it outlines the development of the then secret laboratories and production sites at los alamos, new mexico, oak ridge, tennessee and hanford, washington. the report also was to give some background to the basic physical processes necessary for the viability of nuclear weaponry, in particular, nuclear fission and the nuclear chain reaction. second, it served as a indicator for the relevant scientists as to what information was declassified and what information was still ?top secret?. anything discussed in the smyth report could be used freely in the literature available for public consumption. <br> the stated purpose of the smyth report was to give enough information to the american citizenry that it could understand enough about the new atomic weaponry to make sense of policy decisions regarding them. smyth, in his preface states, "the ultimate responsibility for our nation's policy rests on its citizens and they can discharge such responsibilities wisely only if they are informed."<br> in spite of extensive security review before it was released, the smyth report was criticized by many as having "given away the secret of the a-bomb." and it was in fact used extensively in the soviet union in formulating that country?s a-bomb project. the value to the soviets by-in-large however, was relevant in terms of what sort of factories to build and in order to compare soviet progress with the scale of the american project.<br> these original pre-publication issues do differ slightly from the published account issued by princeton university. groves decided a one sentence allusion to a "poisoning" effect in the production reactors, which stopped the reaction, was sensitive and he had it removed. this deletion was soon noticed in russia, and many believe served only to highlight its importance. also, in the princeton publication, smyth's first and middle names were added instead of the previous use of abbreviations.<br> despite the technical nature of the work, the published edition sold almost 127,000 copies in its first eight printings and was on the new york times best-seller list from mid-october 1945 until late-january 1946. the soviet union did play some role in this commercial success as it is believed they may have purchased well over 1000 copies of the u.s.g.p.o. printing.