What did ordinary people know about nuclear weapon prior Hiroshima?

[Globalization41]

12/16/1943, Catholic Weekly, Atom Bears Witness to God, Energy in Pound of Coal Could Fuel Australia for Months, Part 1

12/16/1943, Catholic Weekly, Atom Bears Witness to God, Energy in Pound of Coal Could Fuel Australia for Months, Part 2

9/7/1944, Cyclotron at Dept. of Terrestrial Magnetism of Carnegie Institute Generates Atom-Smashing Projectiles of 15 Megavolts

10/6/1944, Swedish Correspondent Reports Hitler Has Ordered His Scientists to Speed up Completion of Secret V-3 Atomic Bomb

11/30/1944, Dreams of Releasing Energy in Atoms, Scientists Now Splitting Atoms & Releasing Stores of Energy

Globalization41.

[OpanaPointer]

12/16/1943, Catholic Weekly, Atom Bears Witness to God, Energy in Pound of Coal Could Fuel Australia for Months, Part 1

Oh good grief.

And thanks for the links.

[Globalization41]

6/19/1914, Review of H.G. Wells' Book The World Set Free, Atomic Bombs Dropped from Sky in 1956 War Turn into Volcanos

6/20/1914, Review of H.G. Wells' Book The World Set Free, Material Knowledge Grows Swiftly, Atomic Bombs Flare Up

11/5/1915, No Strategy Could Hold Back Germans if Prussian Physicist Should Realize H.G. Wells' Dream of an Atomic Bomb

8/19/1922, First Nation to Discover Secrets of Einstein's Theory of Releasing Latent Energy Will Be Able to Wipe Out Other Nations

11/22/1933, Many Scientists Disagree with Assertion that Atom Energy Cannot Be Controlled for Commercial Purposes

1/31/1939, Atomic Physics, Smashing Atom by Electronic Impulses, Search for Enormous Power

Globalization41.

[wm]

And I was going to ask, where's Globalization41, when you need him

Who was the one of the most eminent English scientists in "Earth as a Bomb"? His predictions were quite accurate.

"Then consider the possibilities of war. The first nation to discover the secret will be in a position to wipe out all the other nations literally, in a quarter of an hour. It could send over an aeroplane with a 2000 lb. bomb, which would be as devastating an effect as that at a million aeroplanes caring the 2000 lb bombs in use today.[...]

The question is, which will that nation be? America is busy endowing vast laboratories. Germany, even before the war, had the great Kaiser Wilhelm Laboratory near Berlin. But when it comes to granting even £50,900 to Oxford or Cambridge University, the Royal Commission, after two w hole years, has barely been able to induce the Government to consider the possibility.

Interestingly, he mentions Einstein frequently, but Einstein (and for example Rutherford) didn't believe releasing latent energy of atoms was possible. Before the discovery of nuclear chain reactions it was a reasonable position.

[Globalization41]

10/14/1941, Atomic Bombs May Be Horror of Future, Prof. Kapitza in Moscow Says Equations Prove Cities Could Be Destroyed

12/28/1943, Atomic Bomb Would Be New Horror

10/4/1944, Experts in Sweden Believe Atomic Bombs Are the New Secret Weapon Germany Is Rushing to Produce

11/25/1944, Splitting the Atom, Fortunately Not All Uranium Atoms Are Suitable for Atomic Bombs

5/17/1945, Bloody Fighting on Okinawa, Japs Smoked Out by Flamethrowers, Aussies Take Wewak Airfield, B-29s Blast Nagoya

5/22/1945, Amazing Story of Nazi Atomic Bomb, Secret Battle for German A-Bomb Began in Norway at Hydroelectric Plant in 1940

6/1/1945, Jet-Propelled Atomic Bombs Could Destroy the World

7/18/1945, Prelude to Invasion of Japan, Allied Warships Begin Largest Naval Assault of War, Carrier Planes Swarm & Strafe Japan

7/29/1945, How Long Will War with Japan Last? Last Stage Expected to Be Grim & Bloody

8/7/1945, First Atomic Bomb Hits Japan, Truman Vows Sea & Land Forces Will Follow up as Never Before Seen by Japan

8/7/1945, Refugee Scientists Help Develop Atomic Bomb

8/8/1945, Scientists Worked on A-Bomb in Fear of Blowing up World

8/8/1945, New Atomic Bomb May Bring Japan to Her Knees Without Land Force Invasion

Globalization41.

[Carl Schwamberger]

One of the things influencing general public attention would be the 'failed sciences'. Perhaps sciences is the wrong word her, but the 18th, 19th & early 20th Centuries had seen many new marvels of natural philosophy or science prove to be dead ends or otherwise false. This atomic radium stuff might have something to it, or it might be another theory of dry land framing, or Ectoplasam. So, who knows where that science stuff in the newspaper or on the radio might go.

[Globalization41]

There seemed to be very few articles on atomic theory during WWII. If one read their local newspaper and subscribed to a couple of magazines, they might not have seen anything on atomic energy prior to Hiroshima. ... Stalin knew of the Atomic Bomb project, but he didn't take it seriously until it was proven to work.

Globalization41.

[wm]

In the US any references to uranium and atomic energy were censored during the war.
But for example the people investigated by the FBI because of their connection with the Cartmill affair, did claim that material in Deadline was common knowledge.

The atomic theories, even quantum mechanics certainly weren't seen as failed sciences, ectoplasm or another N-rays. It was well understood they represented spectacular breakthrough in science. And because of that in the thirties they were taught as fact in schools/universities.

[phylo_roadking]

There seemed to be very few articles on atomic theory during WWII. If one read their local newspaper and subscribed to a couple of magazines, they might not have seen anything on atomic energy prior to Hiroshima. ... Stalin knew of the Atomic Bomb project, but he didn't take it seriously until it was proven to work.

Globalization41.

In Germany, Heisenberg and Hahn and others did still produce a few research papers; the Allies maintained an active intelligence programme getting hold of these via Switzerland. Before December 1941 the British end of this reported to the legendary MAUD Committee, with its joint responsibility of monitoring what the Germans were doing as well as pushing slowly forward on research on a british Bomb....more along the lines of testing out what they heard from the Germans to see if it could possibly work In the U.S., the American intelligence program that developed to do exactly the same also reported to Gen. Leslie Groves...and filtered via him to the MANHATTAN scientists for consideration if necessary. It was the U.S. intelligence program that carried out the Moe Berg operation...