When work with plutonium was deemed too dangerous for women, Lilli worked on developing high-explosive lens charges that could bend and direct the initially incoherent explosion wave needed to initiate the chain reaction of an atomic bomb.
Like many other participants in the Manhattan Project, Lilli Hornig was horrified by the effects of the atomic bomb. In 1945, she signed a petition calling for the bomb to be dropped on an uninhabited area, preferably a deserted Pacific island, as a war deterrent. The text of the petition, known as the Franck Report, was declared top secret by government authorities, and the military completely ignored the arguments of the atomic bomb creators.
The explosion of an American atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945. Photo source: Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Read the main conclusions of the Franck report:
“The development of nuclear power not only constitutes an important addition to the technological and military power of the United States, but also creates grave political and economic problems for the future of this country.
Nuclear bombs cannot possibly remain a « secret weapon » at the exclusive disposal of this country, for more than a few years. The scientific facts on which their construction is based are well known to scientists of other countries. Unless an effective international control of nuclear explosives is instituted, a race of nuclear armaments is certain to ensue following the first revelation of our possession of nuclear weapons to the world. Within ten years other countries may have nuclear bombs, each of which, weighing less than a ton, could destroy an urban area of more than five square miles. In the war to which such an armaments race is likely to lead, the United States, with its agglomeration of population and industry in comparatively few metropolitan districts, will be at a disadvantage compared to the nations whose population and industry are scattered over large areas.
We believe that these considerations make the use of nuclear bombs for an early, unannounced attack against Japan inadvisable. If the United States would be the first to release this new means of indiscriminate destruction upon mankind, she would sacrifice public support throughout the world, precipitate the race of armaments, and prejudice the possibility of reaching an international agreement on the future control of such weapons.
Much more favorable conditions for the eventual achievement of such an agreement could be created if nuclear bombs were first revealed to the world by a demonstration in an appropriately selected uninhabited area.”
Why did the scientists who created the atomic bomb oppose its use?