Chapter 19 The third part of joining the army-3

Often, when I say "big people don't know the other side of Los Alamos" , I'm telling the truth.Although in my line of work, I am somewhat famous today; at the time, I was just a nobody.In fact, when I first joined the Manhattan Project, I didn't even have a Ph.D. At that time, I was still studying at Princeton.I was working in the room one day, and Bob Wilson came running in and said he had a grant to do a secret study, and he said he wasn't supposed to tell anyone about it, but he Tell me anyway, because he knows that once I hear what he's going to do, I'll agree to join.Then he told me that what he wanted to study was how to separate isotopes of uranium, with the ultimate goal of making a bomb.At that time, he already had a method for separating uranium isotopes (but it was different from the method officially adopted later), and wanted to develop it further.Then he said, "There's a meeting..." I said I didn't want to go.

He said, "Okay, okay, the meeting is at 3 o'clock, I'll wait for you there." I said, "It's okay for you to tell me this secret, I won't tell others, but I don't want to participate in your work." I went back to work on my thesis—about 3 minutes, and then I started pacing back and forth, thinking about this: Germany had Hitler, and they were most likely developing the atomic bomb.If they succeed in developing it before us, it would be a terrifying thing.In the end, I decided to go to the meeting at 3 o'clock. By 4 o'clock I was sitting in a small room at a desk they had arranged for me, doing calculations to see if this or that method might not work because of insufficient current in the ions.I don't need to talk about the details. In short, I sat at the table and calculated desperately, so that those who built the equipment could conduct experiments and tests on the spot.

The situation at that time was very similar to the movie, and there was a set of machines that "wave, wave, wave" got bigger.Every time I look up, the scene in front of me is different again. At that time, everyone put down their research work and devoted themselves to the production of atomic bombs. During the war, except at Los Alamos, scientific research stopped everywhere; but that was hardly scientific research at all, mostly construction. The instruments shipped from the various research groups were all assembled into a brand new instrument—a device for separating isotopes of uranium.I also put my work on hold; although shortly thereafter, I took six weeks off to get my Ph.D. Not quite as low as I just said.

When I first joined the program, I had many interesting experiences, one of which was meeting important people.Before, I had never met several famous characters. There was an evaluation committee to guide us, ultimately to help us choose a method for separating uranium isotopes.The committee included Compton (Arthur HollyCompton), Tolman (Richard Tolman), Smythe (HD Smyth, Harold Urey, I.I. Rabi, and J. Robert Oppenheimer.Since I know the theory of isotope separation very well, I often attend their meetings, and occasionally they will ask me questions and discuss together.The general way of discussion is that after someone puts forward a point of view, another person—for example, Compton—puts forward another point of view, saying what should be done, which sounds reasonable.And then someone said, "Well, maybe, but we should still take these, these possibilities into account."

Therefore, there are often different opinions and disagreements at the conference table.What surprised and puzzled me most was that Compton would not go back and emphasize the point he had just made.Finally, Tolman, the chairman of the meeting, would say, "Okay, we've heard a lot of opinions, and I think Compton's approach is the best, so let's go with it." I was struck by the fact that this group of people -- coming up with a whole bunch of ideas, each considering different aspects, remembering what the others had said, and at the end of the day, being able to make a decision about which idea was the best, And synthesize all opinions, don't have to repeat everything three times!These people are really amazing.

The final decision, however, was not to use our proposed method for the separation of uranium isotopes.We were told to put everything on hold because they were going to actually start building the atomic bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico.We're all going to be working there, and there's going to be a lot of experimentation or theoretical research.I was assigned to the theoretical part, and the others were assigned to the experimental part. The question is, what to do now?At the time, Los Alamos wasn't ready to let us pass.In order to make full use of this gap, Wilson came up with many ideas, one of which was to send me to Chicago to collect all the information on the principles or problems of the atomic bomb.On the other hand, in our own laboratories, we can begin to assemble certain equipment or various measuring instruments, which can be used as soon as we arrive at Los Alamos.So we didn't waste a moment.

My task in Chicago is to go to various research groups, work with them for a period of time, and let them tell me the topic I am studying until I understand the relevant details enough to study independently. After I figure out a topic, I can then go to another group and re-study so that I understand all the details. It's a good idea, but I feel a little guilty; because they put so much effort into explaining the problem to me, and then I figured it out and walked away, not being of much help.But my luck is often very good. When they explain the difficulties encountered to me, I will blurt out: "Why don't you try the method of taking the differential within the integral sign?" The problem of the month was actually solved in this way.So, with my distinctive mathematical tools, I also make small contributions.After returning from Chicago, I reported to everyone: how much energy was released in the experiment, what the atomic bomb would look like, and so on.

Later, Oren, my research partner, came to me and said, "If they make a movie about the making of the atomic bomb in the future, there will be a kid in it who comes back from Chicago and reports the atomic bomb to the people in Princeton. But he must be in a suit." Wearing leather shoes and holding a briefcase, you are full of air. Look at your appearance, the sleeves of your clothes are dirty and casual, and you are talking about this earth-shattering event!" Los Alamos was still lagging behind, so Wilson simply ran over there to see where the problem was.After arriving, he found that the construction company had worked hard to build the theater and several other buildings that they knew how to build, but they had never received instructions on how to build the laboratory, such as how many gas pipes, how many water pipes, etc. were needed.Wilson made a quick decision on how it should be built so that they could begin construction immediately.

When he came back we were all ready to go and we were growing impatient.In the end, after discussing with everyone, it was decided that regardless of whether Los Alamos was ready or not, let's go there first. Incidentally, we were all recruited for this work by Oppenheimer et al., and Oppenheimer was a very patient man who cared deeply about our individual problems.He was very concerned about my wife who had tuberculosis, whether there was a hospital near Los Alamos, and so on.This is the first time I have had personal contact with him; he is indeed a rare good man. We were ordered to be extra cautious in everything, for example, not to buy train tickets in Princeton.Because Princeton is such a small station, if everyone was buying tickets here to go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, it would be easy to draw attention to the fact that something big was going on.So everybody goes somewhere else to buy a ticket, except me; because I thought: If everybody goes somewhere else to buy a ticket, then I'll just... I go to the train station and say, "One ticket to Albuquerque, New Mexico tickets." The conductor said, "Oh, then these things are all yours!"

It turned out that we had been consigning boxes of instruments from Princeton to Albuquerque for several weeks, and we hoped not to attract attention!Therefore, by accident, my appearance found a reasonable explanation for these instruments. When we arrived, many buildings, dormitories, etc. were not yet finished, in fact even the labs were not ready yet.We got there early and drove them to hell, and they went crazy and rented out all the nearby ranch houses for us to live in.At first we lived in a ranch house and drove to camp in the morning.In the early morning of the first day, I was deeply impressed by the scenery on the road. For me, an easterner who rarely travels far, the beauty of the scenery is really refreshing.There are majestic cliffs that you may have seen in the photos.Climbing all the way up from a low place, when you suddenly land on a high platform, you will find that the scene is amazing.The funniest thing for me was all the way I was saying maybe Indians used to live here so the friend who was driving stopped the car and took me around a corner and pointed out some Indians for me cave.

When I first arrived at the camp, I noticed that there was a work area that would later be walled off, and that there would be a small town, and outside of these areas there would be a larger wall surrounding the town.But at the time, it was all under construction, and my mathematician friend Oren—who was also my assistant—was standing at the gate with a clipboard in hand, registering trucks coming in and out of the camp, telling them what should where to send. When I ran into the laboratory, I met people I had heard of but never met. Many names were only seen when I read their published papers in "Physical Review" (PhysicaIReview). "This is Williams," they'd say.Then someone stood up from behind a desk full of blueprints, rolled up his sleeves, and yelled out the window, directing where a truck full of building materials should go.In other words, these physicists had nothing else to do until the house was built and the instruments were set up, so they did it themselves—or at least helped build the buildings. As for theoretical physicists, they can get to work right away.So it was decided that they didn't have to live on the ranch, and they could all move into the camp; after that, we started working on the research right away.There was no blackboard at that time, only one with wheels that could be pushed around; Robert Serber used this movable blackboard to explain to us all the atomic bomb and nuclear physics theories they had thought of at Berkeley University.I don't know much about these, because I've been working on other things, so I have to cram as hard as I can. Every day I was researching, reading, researching, reading, and it was a really intense time.But I've had good luck, too, and with the exception of Hans Bethe, all of the science titans happen to be out of town.What Bate needed more than anything else was someone to talk to, because he needed someone to play a different tune and see if his ideas stood the test of time. On this day, he came to the office, asked me, a little guy, to explain his ideas, and had an argument.I said, "No, no, you're crazy. That's the way it should be." And he said, "Wait a minute," and explained why I wasn't crazy and he wasn't crazy.We'll keep fighting like this.You know, whenever I hear anything about physics, I just think about physics, and I completely forget who I'm talking to, so I'll just say, "No, no, you're wrong," or "You're crazy" and stuff like that.But I didn't expect that this was exactly the attitude he expected, so I was promoted to one level and became the team leader under Bate, responsible for supervising four researchers. As mentioned earlier, when I first arrived in Los Alamos, the dormitory was not completed, but theoretical physicists still had to live in the camp.At first they housed us in an old boys' schoolhouse.We were all crammed in there in bunk beds, which was badly arranged - because another physicist, Robert Christy, and his wife had to go through our dormitory to use the bathroom, and everyone was very upset. convenient. The dormitory is finally built.I went to the office that assigned the dormitory, and they told me that you can pick the room you like.Guess what I did? I ran to see the location of the girls' dormitory, and picked a room directly opposite them.However, I later found out that there was a tree just outside the window of this room, and the view was completely blocked! They told me that each room temporarily accommodates two people, and the two rooms share a bathroom.The bedrooms are all bunk beds, but I don't want to share a room with another person. On the night I moved into the dormitory, I was the only one there, and I decided to occupy that dormitory exclusively.My wife, who was living in Albuquerque at the time, was suffering from lung disease, and she had several boxes of laundry with me.Then I took out a piece of her pajamas, lifted the quilt of the upper bed, and threw the pajamas on top casually, took out a pair of slippers, and sprinkled some powder on the bathroom floor to make the room look as if there was still room. Like other people live.What do you think happened?It was a dormitory for boys by definition; but when I went back that night, I found my pajamas neatly folded under the pillow on the lower bunk, and my slippers under the bed.The women's nightgown was also well folded and placed under the pillows on the top bunk.The incense powder in the bathroom has also been cleaned up, and no one else is sleeping on the upper bed. The next night, I repeated the trick, messing up the top bunk, throwing nightgowns on top, dusting the bathroom, etc.After 4 nights in a row, everyone moved in and settled down, and they probably wouldn't install anyone to live with me, so the crisis was resolved.On those nights, the place was cleaned up for me, but in reality it was a boys' dormitory. At that time, I never thought that this little fraud would involve me in a "political dispute".Naturally, various factions arose in the camp: Housewives, mechanics, technicians, etc.Well, the bachelors and bachelorettes in the dorms think they should form a separate faction too, and the reason is precisely because of a new rule: girls are not allowed in boys' dorms!This is absolutely ridiculous, after all we are all grown-ups, what nonsense is this!We must act.So there was a debate on the matter, and I was nominated to be the dormitory representative to the town council. About a year and a half later, I was chatting with Bet.He had been on the management committee during that time, and he laughed when I told him I was using my wife's nightgown and slippers as a trick. "So that's how you got elected to the town council!" he said.That's what happened.The female dormitory cleaner opened the door and suddenly found out that something was wrong: someone had spent the night in the boys' dormitory!She reported to the foreman, who reported to the lieutenant, who reported to the major; passed several generals, and finally all the way to the management committee. What should they do?They decided to take the long view and that was it! But in the meantime, how would they instruct the major, how would the major instruct the lieutenant, how would the lieutenant instruct the foreman, and how would the foreman instruct the women workers? “Just tell them to put things back in place, clean them up, and wait and see.” By the next day, they were reported that the situation hadn’t changed.For 4 days, these high-level figures were all worried and didn't know what to do, and finally they issued a ban: Girls are not allowed to enter the boys dormitory!Unexpectedly, this ban caused an uproar at the grassroots level, and finally elected representatives... Next, I would like to talk about Los Alamos' "Secret Anti-Spies".At that time they carried out an absolutely illegal practice of censoring our correspondence—and they really had no right to interfere with correspondence.So they resort to an ingenious method, which is euphemistically called "voluntary system": we all "volunteer" Agree to leave the letter unsealed, and agree that they can open the letter they send us at will.They didn't seal the letter for us until they felt that there was no problem with the letter. If they thought there was a problem, they would send the letter back to us with a little note explaining which paragraph violated a certain clause of our "agreement". In this way, they have cleverly established a set of checks under various names among us scientists who tend to be free-thinking.However, we can criticize the way the authorities are run, so if there is any dissatisfaction, we can also write to our state senators to express dissatisfaction.They promised to let us know if anything went wrong. Everything is arranged, the first day of anti-espionage confidentiality: Bell... Bell!The phone is ringing! I asked: "What's the matter?" "Please come here." I ran away. "what is this?" "This is a letter from my father." "What's on it?" It was a piece of paper with horizontal lines, and there were many small dots above and below the lines—four dots below the line, one above the top, two below the line, one point above the line, and one dot below the line... "What are these?" I said, "This is the password." They said, "Yeah, it's a password, but what does it mean?" I told them, "I don't know." "What about decoding? How do you translate it?" they asked. I replied, "Ha, I don't know." "What is this?" they asked. I said, "This is a letter from my wife, it says TJXYWZTWIX3." "What is that?" I said, "Another set of passwords." "Where is the decoding?" "I don't know." They got angry: "You received a lot of encrypted documents, and you said you don't know how to decode them?" I said, "That's right. We're playing a game and I'm challenging them to crack any code, see? So they try to make up some codes and send them without telling me what the codes are." One of the censorship rules was that they couldn't alter the letters that came and went, so they said, "Okay, please tell them to send the codes with the letters." I said, "But I don't want to see the decoding." They said, "Well, then we'll take the decoding off." Finally an agreement was reached.Is everything clear?The next day, I got a letter from my wife saying, "It's hard to write because I always feel like... is watching me." The words in the middle were washed away by the correction fluid, leaving a trace. I ran to the inspectorate and said, "Even if you don't like the content of the letter, you shouldn't touch it. You can read the letter, but you can't alter it." They said, "Don't be stupid. You thought the inspectors would use correction fluid? They'd just cut the words out." I said "Okay" and when I wrote to my wife I asked, "Is there any correction fluid in the letter?" I went to complain to the major in charge of these things.Of course it takes time, but I feel obligated to do justice for the heavens.The major explained to me that these people were professional inspectors, all trained in that way, and they didn't understand the implementation policy of our new method. Then he said, "Why, don't you believe my sincerity?" I said, "Yes. You are very sincere, but you don't seem to have much power." In fact, he has been in charge of this work for three or four days. He said, "Just wait and see!" He picked up the phone, and all the problems were solved, and they never cut my letter. However, there are other troubles.For example, one day I got a letter from my wife with a note from the censor saying, "This letter contains some undecoded ciphers, we'll remove that." When I went to visit my wife in Albuquerque, she said, "Hey, where's my thing?" I said, "What?" "Lead oxide, glycerin, hot dogs, clean clothes," she said. I said, "Wait a minute—is that a list?" She said, "Yes." "That's the code," I said. "They thought it was the code!" (The purpose of her asking for lead oxide and glycerin was to adjust the adhesive to repair her onyx jewelry box.) Similar incidents happened again and again, and after several years For a week, we settled the problem.One day I was playing with the computer, and I stumbled upon something very special. If you divide 1 by 243, you will get 0.004115226337... This is wonderful, and after 559, it is irregular, but it returns to the beautiful cycle soon.I thought that was fun. So I sent these figures in a letter and it was returned with a note: See Article 17 Part B. Part B of Article 17 says: "All letters must be written in English, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin or German.... Use of other languages ​​must first obtain written permission." Then "the use of passwords is not allowed." I sent the letter back with a note to the censor saying I don't think it's a combination because if you divide 1 by 243 you really get those numbers and they don't mean anything...they just Equal to 1/243 - that's not much information, so I request the use of Arabic numerals in the letter.In the end, the letter passed smoothly. The exchange of letters was always troublesome.For example, my wife repeatedly mentioned: Checking the mail made her feel uneasy, always feeling that someone was watching her from behind.But according to the regulations, we can't talk about "checking letters".The problem is, we can't mention it, but how do they tell her not to mention it?They just kept sending me notes: "Your wife mentioned mail checking again." Of course she did!Finally they gave me a note saying, "Please tell your wife not to mention censorship in your letter." So I began my letter to her by saying, "I have been instructed to tell you not to Mention mail inspection in the letter." This letter was also returned!So I wrote, "I have been instructed to tell my wife not to mention checking letters. What the hell am I supposed to do? And why am I telling her not to mention checking letters? Is there something you are hiding from me ?" This is really ridiculous!The inspector has to tell me: tell my wife not to tell me, she can't...but they already have the answer.Yes, they said, they were just worried that the mail would be stolen halfway from Albuquerque, and someone would find out about the mail censorship; so she had to do her a favor and act normal. The next time I was in Albuquerque, I said to my wife, "Let's not talk about mail censorship." We had so much trouble, though, that we ended up devising a code—even though is illegal.If I put a dot after my signature, it means I'm in trouble, and she'll take the next step and make up some stories.Her illness made her sit there all day and come up with a lot of ideas.The last trick she played was to cut out an ad and send it to me, which seemed perfectly legitimate.The ad said: "Give your boyfriend a 'puzzle letter'! You can buy blank puzzle pieces from us, write the letter on it, unpack it, and mail it to him in an envelope." I accepted The note attached to the ad said: "We don't have time for games. Please instruct your wife to use normal letter writing." We were ready to go with the two-dot cipher, but they were "just in time" Improvement, our idea is useless.Our idea was to start the letter with: "I hope you will be careful when you open the letter, because I am sending the powder you are going to use for stomach problems." Imagine the people in the examination room rushing to open the envelope, They get annoyed if the powder isn't all over the place and have to clean it up...but we don't have to use that trick. Having dealt with the censors quite a bit, I knew exactly what letters would get through and what wouldn't—no one knew them better than I did, and I'd won some money betting on it. One day, I found that some workers who lived on the outskirts of the camp were too lazy to go around and enter through the gate of the fence when they went to work in the morning.So I went out through the gate, went back to the camp through the gap, walked out through the gate, and walked back through the gap; Walk in the door?Of course, his instinctive reaction was to report to the captain and send me to the cell.I told him there was a hole in the wall. You see, I'm actually helping other people fix their mistakes a lot.Back to the betting thing, I made a bet that I could write a letter about the hole in the wall and send it, and I won.My way of writing it is, "You should come and see how they run the place (which we can say), there is a big hole 71 feet from so-and-so, the hole is so big that a person can walk through it... "What shall they do?They couldn't tell me there wasn't a hole there.It's unlucky for them to have a hole there, what they should do is fix it.So my letter passed the inspection without a hitch. In another letter, I talked about how a guy in my group named John Kemeny was called up in the middle of the night by military morons for interrogation just because they found out that his dad seemed to be a communist or something Other little things.Kemoni is a very famous man today. And many other little things.Like the "hole event" in the fence, I always like to point out the problem in an indirect way.One of them is that we had a lot of classified information in the beginning.We had a lot of research: bombs and uranium; all the data were kept in some wooden filing cabinets, which were locked with ordinary small padlocks, at most a cross bar made by a craftsman, and finally Lock it with just a small lock.In this way, you don't have to open the chain, you can take out the file!You just need to put the filing cabinet backwards. There is a small iron rod in the bottom drawer, and a movable hard partition is installed on the rod-it is used to help fix the files; there is also a long, wide and wide hole. You can pull out the files from under the wooden cabinet. I used to sneak the lock off and tell them how easy it was. In every meeting I stand up and say we shouldn't be keeping such important secrets in such crappy cabinets and need better locks.One day, Edward Teller answered me in a meeting: "I don't keep my most important confidential documents in filing cabinets, I keep them in desk drawers. Wouldn't that be better?" I said, "I don't know, I haven't seen what your desk drawers look like." He sat in the front row of the venue and I sat in the back.So while the meeting was going on, I sneaked out and went to check his drawers.At a glance, I knew that I didn’t even need to open the lock of the drawer—you just need to reach the back of the drawer, and you can take out all the documents in the drawer like pulling out toilet paper.I took one out, and another, until I emptied the entire drawer.I piled all the papers aside and ran back to the meeting. The meeting was just about to end, and everyone left the meeting room one by one.I squeezed into the crowd, caught up to Tyler, and asked him, "Oh, yes, let me see your drawer by the way." "Okay," he said, leading me to his table. I took one look at it and said, "That looks pretty safe. Let's see what you put in there?" "I'd love to show you," he said, opening the drawer with the key. "If," he said, "you haven't peeked at it." The trouble with trying to play tricks on someone as smart as Tyler was the short time between when he noticed something was wrong and when he figured out what was actually going on. Let you be proud of it before it's too late! I ran into some very special and interesting problems in Los Alamos.One was related to safety concerns at the Oak Ridge, Tennessee, laboratory.Los Alamos was where the atomic bomb was built and installed, but Oak Ridge was responsible for separating uranium-238 from uranium-235 (the explosive kind).They were just beginning to extract a little bit of uranium-235 from the experiment, and at the same time stepped up to explore and practice the relevant chemical procedures.In the future they will build a large factory to store uranium; in addition, they will also re-refine the refined uranium for further processing.Therefore, on the one hand, they practice, on the other hand, they obtain trace amounts of uranium 235 from experiments, and learn analysis methods to determine the content of uranium 235 in the samples.And even though we sent the step-by-step instructions, they still couldn't get the hang of it. In the end, Emil Segre said the only way was for him to run to Oak Ridge to see what was actually going on.The military personnel said: "No, our policy is Los Alamos' material, it must stay in Los Alamos." The people of Oak Ridge had no idea what those things were for, they only knew what they were supposed to do.I mean, of course the people at the top knew they were separating uranium, but they had no idea how powerful the bomb was or how it actually worked, and the people down there had no idea what they were doing, Military personnel are also keen to maintain the status quo, so there is no flow of information between the two places at all.But Shagery insisted that the people at Oak Ridge were always getting their analysis wrong, and the whole plan would be ruined.At last he was allowed to run to Oak Ridge to see how they were doing.There, he saw staff walking around on carts, pushing a vat of green water, which was a solution of uranium nitrate. He asked, "Well, after these solutions have been refined, do you push them around like this?" They said: "Of course it is moved like this, why not?" "Won't it explode?" "Huh? Explosion?" So the military said, "Look! We shouldn't have let any information out! Now they're all upset!" The actual situation is that the military does know how much material is needed to make an atomic bomb-about 20 kilograms; but they feel that it is impossible to have so much refined uranium raw material in the plant, so there is no danger.What they didn't know, however, was that neutrons travel slower in water, but are more powerful.In water, as long as 1/10—no, 1% of the raw material is enough to cause a reaction, cause radiation, and harm people around.It's definitely dangerous, but they've never paid attention to the associated safety issues. Oppenheimer quickly telegraphed the order to Sagari: "Inspect the whole factory. Follow their work procedures and pay attention to where materials are concentrated. At the same time, we will calculate how much material can be put together without causing danger." The two groups immediately started to calculate.Christie's group calculated the aqueous solution, and my group calculated the material when it was powdered and boxed.According to the original plan, Christie would go to Oak Ridge and tell them what was going on.Now the situation is very critical, we must send people over.I handed all the calculated data to Christie, and said to him in a relaxed and happy manner: "The data are all complete, let's go." But Christie suddenly got pneumonia.It turned out to be me. I've never been on a plane, another thing that's new, is that they have the secret in a little thing strapped to my back!At that time, the plane was a bit like a bus, except that this stop was far away from the next stop, and occasionally the plane would "stop" waiting. While waiting for the plane, there was a guy standing next to me, dangling a chain in his hand, and babbling, "People who don't have priority probably don't get seats these days." I put up with it. I couldn't help but said, "I don't know, I'm the one with priority." After a while, he came again. "Some generals are coming to fly, and we'll probably be put in third overall." "It's okay," I said, "I'm number two." I've often thought that guy probably wrote to his congressman later -- if he wasn't a congressman himself -- and said, "Why did they give this kid second pick during the war?" In short, I reached Oak Ridge safely.The first thing I got there was that I asked them to take me to the factory to have a look. I kept silent and looked desperately along the way.I found the situation to be worse than what Shagry reported, because although he noticed a lot of boxes stacked in one room, he didn't notice a stack of boxes in the next room—that is, on the other side of the same wall. There are many boxes, but in this way, the boxes are still placed too close together, and when a certain amount is reached, danger will occur. I carefully inspected every corner of the factory.I don't have a great memory, but when I'm concentrating on my work I have a good short-term memory, so I jotted down a bunch of oddball stuff like buildings numbered 90-207. That night, I went over the whole thing in my dormitory to figure out where the danger zone was and what remedial measures should be taken.In fact, it is not difficult, as long as cadmium is added to the aqueous solution to absorb neutrons.另一方面，他们也可按照某些规定，让箱子不要放得太密集，便不会有危险。第二天，我们将举行一个庞大会议，讨论相关事项。 在我离开罗沙拉摩斯之前，奥本海默对我说：“在橡树岭那边，韦伯以及某某、某某都是深切了解技术问题的人。举行会议之前，你必须确定这些人全部列席，这样当你告诉他们如何确保安全时，橡树岭的人才不会搞错。” 我说：“假如他们没有列席呢？我能怎么办？” 他说：“那么你就说：'罗沙拉摩斯无法承担橡树岭的安全问题，除非……！'” 我说：“你的意思是，我这个小人物理查德，跑到那边说除非……？” 他说：“是的，小理查德，你就那样做。”我长得真快呢！ 到达会场时，没错，工厂的大人物和我希望列席的技术人员都在场了，甚至许多将军以及对这些问题有兴趣的人也来了。这是个好现象，因为如果没人关心这些问题，厂房到最后会爆炸的。 负责照顾我的是一名中尉森瓦特。他告诉我，上校说我不应该告诉大家，中子如何运作等细节——因为他们要把一切分得清清楚楚，以便管理——因此只要指示他们如何确保安全，便够了。 我说：“我认为，除非他们明白一切如何运作，否则单要他们服从一堆规则，是件不可能的事情。我认为唯一可行的作法，是告诉他们细节。罗沙拉摩斯无法承担橡树岭的安全问题，除非他们充分了解一切如何运作！” 这句话有效极了。中尉把我带去见上校，重复了我的话。上校说：“给我５分钟。”然后走到窗口，站在那里沉思。那是他们最在行的事情了——做决定。我觉得，像原子弹如何运作的资料，应不应该在橡树岭内流传之类的大事，居然要在５分钟内、而且也能够在５分钟内做出决定，实在是非常了不起。我对这些军方人士佩服万分，因为不管有多少时间，我还是无法做任何重大决定。５分钟后，他说：“好吧，费曼先生，讲吧。” 会议开始，我告诉他们一切关于中子的详情，这里有太多中子了，你们必须把东西分隔开，镉可以吸收中子，慢中子比快中子作用更大……等等。这些在罗沙拉摩斯全都是最基本的常识，但这些人从未听过；因此在他们心目中，我竟然成了天才！ 结果是，他们立刻成立各种小组，进行计算和练习怎么做。他们重新设计厂房内部，把原来设计厂房的建筑师、相关的营造商、工程师以及化学工程师全都找来，一起设计新厂房，把材料分隔开来。 他们要我数月后再跑一趟。因此当工程师完成厂房设计后，我再到橡树岭——这次是看看重新设计好的厂房。 可是，工厂还没盖呢，我要怎么个看法？I have no idea.在橡树岭，无论我走到哪里，都必须有他们的人陪伴在旁。这次，森瓦特中尉带我去一个大办公室，里面有两位工程师以及一张很长很长的桌子，上面铺满了设计好的厂房蓝图。 我在中学时学过机械绘图，但看蓝图我并不在行。他们把蓝图摊开来、向我逐步说明，以为我真的是个天才。 事实上，他们需要避免的是材料过量堆积。例如，有蒸发器的地方就会出现问题。蒸发器会积存材料，如果它的阀门卡住了或别的地方出了毛病，材料累积大多，就会爆炸。这两位工程师向我说明，在新设计里，任何一个阀门卡住也不会发生什么事故，各部分起码都有两个阀门。 接着他们说明整个运作原理：四氯化碳从这里进来，硝酸铀从这里流到这里，往上，往下，沿着管道跑到上面的楼层，咕噜咕噜——走过一整叠的蓝图，上——下——上——下；他们说得飞快，解释的又是十分复杂的化学工厂。 听得我头都昏了。更糟的是，我又看不懂蓝图上的符号究竟代表什么！有个正方形、中央有个小十字的符号，在蓝图上随处可见，起先我以为它代表了窗口，但它不可能是个窗户，因为，它都不是位在建筑物的边缘。我很想问他们：这到底是什么？ 你大概也曾陷进过这种没有适时发问的窘境之中吧！ 如果一开始就发问，便什么问题也没有了，可是现在他们说的已经多了那么一点点，我也犹豫太久了。如果你问他们到底在说什么，他们会说：“为什么不早问？白白浪费了我这么多的时间？” what should I do?我灵机一动：也许它真的是个阀门呢。 我指着第３页蓝图上其中一个神秘的十字符号，说：“如果这个阀门卡住，会发生什么事情？”心里预期他们会说： “这不是阀门，先生，这是个窗口。” 他们之中的一人看着另一人，说：“嗯，如果这个阀门卡住了……”对着蓝图从上看到下，从下看到上，另一个工程师也从上看到下，从后面看到前面；然后他们互相对看，转过头来向着我，嘴巴张开，好像两条惊吓过度的鱼般，说：“你说的完全正确，先生。” 于是他们卷起蓝图离开，我们一起走出房间。一直在旁的森瓦特说：“你真是个天才。上次你在厂房内走一趟，第二天早上随口提起第90—207号建筑的C—21号蒸发器，我就觉得你是个天才了，”他说，“刚刚你的表现是那么的杰出，我很想知道你是怎么做到的？”我告诉他，我要做的是弄清楚那是不是阀门。 我曾经着手研究过另一个问题，当时，我们要处理很多计算，而我们使用的是玛灿特计算机。让我顺便谈谈那时罗沙拉摩斯的景况：玛灿特计算机是手摇式的。你用力摇，它就能加减乘除——当然没有现在的计算机那么方便。 它们全是机械装置，经常发生故障，坏了要送回原厂修理；而隔没多久，所有计算机都在厂里，我们就无机可用了。 于是我们有些人便开始把机盖掀开，自己动手修理。按照规定这是不行的，他们说：“自行掀开机盖者，后果概不负责……”但我们自行把机盖掀开，而且还学会了怎样修理这些计算机，修得愈多，手艺愈精。碰到一些太复杂的状况时，我们才把计算机送回原厂去，一切计算工作才得以继续进行。最后我发现，所有计算机都是我在修；负责机械修理的那位仁兄，只修打字机。 总之，后来我们觉得最大的问题——准确算出原子弹爆发时究竟会出现什么状况，从而知道释出多少能量等等——所需要的计算工作，远超过我们的能力。有个名叫弗兰科（Stanley Frankel）的聪明小伙子想到， 也许可以使用ＩＢＭ计算机来进行这方面的计算。那时ＩＢＭ制造了用在商业上的计算机，像把数字加起来并列出总和的“加数机”，或者是从你插入的资料卡片上，读出其中两个数字来相乘的“乘数机”；此外还有“校勘机”和“分类机”等。 弗兰科想出一套很好的方案：我们可以在同一房间内放很多这类机器，然后让卡片逐一通过这些机器。今天，任何需要做数字计算的人，都会明白我在说什么，但在当时这还是很新的想法，还没几个人想到用机器做大量计算。 之前我们试过利用加数机做过类似的计算，例如放一堆加数机在那里，加完一些数字后传到另一个加数机那里，进行下一步的计算，所有事情都自己来。 但新方案是首先你走到加数机那里，再走到乘数机，再用加数机……我们都觉得这是个很好的方法，于是弗兰科设计好整套程序，跟ＩＢＭ订了机器。 这些机器经常需要维修，军方也会派专人来修理机器。 但他们总是姗姗来迟，而我们永远是急急忙忙，每件事都十万火急，这次也不例外。我们已经设计好所有计算程序，乘这数，然后这样，再减那个数等，也弄清楚需要哪些工具，但我们没有任何机器来测试这些想法。终于，我们找了一些女孩子来帮忙。我们给她们一人一部玛灿特计算机： 这个负责乘数，下一个是加数，另一个负责立方——她的工作就是算出卡片上数字的三次方，再交给下一个女孩。 我们把整套程序从头到尾一遍一遍地演练，直到正确无误。结果发现，这种分工计算的方法：要比单独一个人从头算到尾的方式快了不知多少倍！而我们这套作业方式的速度，等于使用IBM机器的速度了，唯一的分别是，IBM机器不会疲倦，一天能连续三班不停工作，可是我们雇来的女孩没多久就全累倒了。 总之，我们用这方法把作业系统内的缺点，全纠正过来；最后机器也送到了，但维修工人还是没有出现。这些机器属于当时的最新科技，结构十分复杂，体积庞大，是拆开分件装箱送来的，还附了很多电线和说明如何安装的蓝图。弗兰科、我以及另外一个家伙，一起把它装起来，其中碰到不少困难，但最大的困难，是那些大人物不停地跑进来说：“你们会把它弄坏！” 我们继续把机件装置好，它们有时操作良好，有时候却因为什么弄错了，而出问题。后来当我在弄一部乘数机时，注意到里面有一个零件弯了，但我不敢把它弄直，因为害怕把它弄断——而他们一直都在唠叨，说我们早晚会把什么东西搞砸。终于，维修工人出现了，立刻把我们没有弄对的机件一一装妥，一切就都运作良好。除了那部我一直没法弄好的乘数机，三天之后，他还在跟那最后一部机器挣扎奋斗。 我跑去看他，说：“哦，对了，我注意到这里有点弯曲。” He said. “噢，当然，就是它了！”他用力一扭，机器全好了，就那么简单。 至于弗兰科呢，这个“程序”是他发明的，但这时候他却跟所有后来的电脑使用者一样，患上了电脑病。这是种很严重的病，甚至干扰到正常工作的进行了。电脑的麻烦，在于你会跟它“玩”。它们是那么的有趣——所有的按钮都在你掌握之中，你这样弄得到某个双数，那样弄就是单数。不久之后，只要你够聪明，能计算的东西便愈来愈多。 可是不久之后，我们的系统也崩溃下来了，因为弗兰科无法专心工作，更没用心督导其他人。计算系统运行得很慢很慢，他却坐在房间内，思索如何能让列表机自动算出角度的反正切值。好了，列表机开始动作，画出一行行的线，发出“嗖！嗖！嗖！”的声音，一边画一边计算积分值，然后把所有角度的反正切值列出来，一次完成。 这绝对是没用的事情，因为我们早已有反正切函数表了。但如果你用过计算机，你就会充分了解这种病——发现自己有多能干的喜悦。这是他第一次感染上这种病症，好笑的是，那套系统却刚好是这个可怜虫创造出来的！ 终于，他们要我停下手边工作，负起督导IBM小组的责任，我很小心不让自己染上那种病。虽然９个月以来，他们只解决了３个问题，小组成员的素质却很高。真正的问题是，从来没有人告诉他们任何事。军方透过称为“特遣工程师”的计划，从全美各地挑出具有工程才能的高中生，送到罗沙拉摩斯来，安排他们住在营房里，却什么也不告诉他们。 这些青年就这样开始上班了，他们的工作呢，却是在这些IBM机器的卡片上打洞， 计算一些他们不知所谓何来的数字；因此他们的进度非常慢。当下我建议，这些技术人员必须知道我们究竟在做什么。于是奥本海默跑去跟安全人员商讨，获得特别许可，我便给他们好好上了一堂课。 他们全都兴奋极了：“原来我们在参加作战！我们明白这是怎么一回事了！”现在这些数字对他们都别具意义了。 如果计算出来的压力值较高，那么被释出的能量也相应增加……等。他们充分明白自己在做什么了。 他们简直是脱胎换骨了！大家开始发明新方法把工作做得更好，也改良了整个系统。他们更自动自发，晚上加班，完全不需要任何监督：事实上，现在他们什么也不需要了，因为他们明白一切，后来还发明了几套很有用的程序。 这批小伙子真的变得很了不起。而从头到尾，我要做的只不过是告诉他们，这究竟是怎么一回事。结果，虽然前面他们花了9个月，才完成3个问题； 我们后来却在3个月内解决了9个题目，效率几乎提升了10倍之多！ 不过，我们有很多秘密武器，其中之一是利用不同颜色的卡片。我们的作业方式，是一大叠卡片需要绕场一周。 先加、再乘，就那样走遍房间内的每一部机器，一圈又一圈地绕，很慢。因此我们想到，将另一组不同颜色的卡片放进计算循环中，但这组卡片跑的比前面一组稍为慢一点。 这样一来，我们可以同时进行两三项计算。 不过这也带来了麻烦。举个例子，战争接近尾声，就在原子弹在阿布奎基正式试爆之前，大家面对的问题是： 究竟爆炸时会释放出多少能量？不错，我们计算过各种不同设计所释出的能量，可是从来没有就最后采用的那种设计，计算到底会有多少能量释放出来。克利斯蒂跑来跟我说：“我们要知道这东西会怎样爆发，希望能在一个月内拿到计算结果。”——确切的时限记不得了，也许是3周，总之是很短的时间。 我说：“这是不可能的事。” 他说：“看，现在你们一个月差不多交出一两个问题。 那等于说两三星期便可以解决一个问题啦。 " 我回答说：“我知道。不过我们实际花在一个题目上的时间，没有那么短，只不过我们用平行的运算方式而已。 整个操作过程很费时，我们没办法跑得更快了。 " 他离去后我开始想，到底有没有办法加快运算速度呢？ 假如我们全力处理一个问题，所有机器不受其他干扰，结果会怎样？我在黑板上写“我们做得到吗？”向这些小孩下挑战书。他们开始高喊：“可以，我们多轮一班，我们加班工作！”他们不停地叫：“我们要试！我们接受挑战！” 于是我们约法三章：其他计算一概暂停，我们全力以赴，只处理这个题目。大家立刻开始行动！ 那时候，我太太阿琳正患了肺病，病情实在严重，看起来随时会出什么状况。因此我预先跟宿舍里的一个朋友商量好，有急需时便借用他的车，好能够迅速赶到阿布奎基去看阿琳。那位朋友名叫福斯，后来发现原来他是一名间谍。他就是用他的车子把罗沙拉摩斯的原子弹机密带到圣塔菲（Santa Fe）去，但当时没有人知道这些事。 紧急情况发生了。我开了福斯的车，路上还载了两个搭便车的，以防途中车子出了什么问题，也可有个帮手。 果然，我们才开到圣塔菲时，一个轮胎就破了，他们两人帮我一起把备胎换上。而当我们要离开圣塔菲时，另一个轮胎也破了，我们只好把车子推到附近的加油站。 加油站的人正在修理另一辆车，看来要等很久才会轮到我们。我根本没想到要说些什么，但这两位乘客跑去跟加油站的人说明了我的状况。很快地，他就替我换上新轮胎。但我们再没有备胎了——在战时，车胎是稀有物资，取得不易。 离阿布奎基还有30英里，第3个轮胎也爆了。 我干脆把车子停在路边，大家一起拦便车到目的地。我又打电话给修车厂，请他们把车子拖去修理，一方面赶去医院看阿琳。 在我抵达医院数小时后，阿琳去世了。护士进病房来填写死亡证明书，然后离开。我陪着阿琳又过了一会儿，无意中看到我送给她的闹钟。那是７年前的事情了，当时她才刚感染上肺病。在那些日子里，这种数字钟算是很精巧的东西，它利用机械原理，能够显示数字。由于它结构极为精巧，因此很容易故障，隔不多久我便须动手修理一下；但多年来我还是没把它丢掉。这次它又停摆了——停在９点２２分上，刚巧是死亡证明书上记下的时间！ 记得在麻省理工念书时，有一天在兄弟会宿舍里，无缘无故地心电感应，觉得祖母去世了。紧接着电话铃声突然响起，不过电话不是打给我的，祖母还健在。这件事让我印象深刻，经常惦着也许有一天，别人会告诉我结局相反的故事。我想那也很可能碰巧发生，毕竟那时祖母已经很老了。当然，如果真有那样的事，很多人会认为是种超自然的现象。 阿琳生病期间，一直把那只钟放在床边，它却刚好在她去世的那一刻停顿。我明白，那些对这类事情疑信参半的人，在这种情况之下，不会立刻去研究事情的真相；他们会认定没人碰过那时钟，事情无法解释；而钟确实停了，确实可以算是一件惊人的超自然案例。 不过我注意到房间的灯光很暗，我甚至记得护士曾经拿起钟来，迎着光以看清楚一点，那很容易就把它弄停了。 我到外面走了一会。也许我在骗自己，但我很惊讶，自己竟然没有感觉到一般人在这种情况下应有的感觉。我并不愉快，也没有觉得特别难受，也许那是因为７年来已有心理准备，这件事早晚会发生。 我不晓得如何面对罗沙拉摩斯的朋友。我不想别人愁眉苦脸地跟我谈这件事。回去之后——路上又爆了一个轮胎——他们问我发生了什么事。 “她过世了。工作进行得怎么样？” 他们立刻明白，我不想镇日沉埋在哀伤里。很明显，我对自己做了心理建设：正视现实是那么重要——我必须慢慢厘清发生在阿琳身上的是怎么一回事——以致于一直到好几个月之后才哭出来。那时我在橡树岭，刚巧路过一家百货公司，看到橱窗内的洋装，心想阿琳一定会喜欢其中一件，就再也按捺不住了。 等我重新投入计算工作时，发现情况一团糟。那里有白色的、黄色及蓝色的卡片。我说：“你们不是应该只做一个题目吗？只能做一个题目！”他们说：“出去，出去。 等一下，让我们说明一切。 " It turned out to be like this.卡片通过机器时，它们有时会出错，又或者数字打错了。从前碰到这种情况时，我们都得重来一遍。可是他们发现，在某一轮的计算中出的错误，只会影响到邻近的数字，但下一轮计算中它会影响到某些数字，以此类推，例如，你一共要处理50张卡片，第38张发生错误，而影响到第37、38及39这3张卡片。到了下一循环，受影响的卡片是第36、37、38、39及40等5张。然后，错误就像瘟疫般蔓延开来。 有一次他们发现前面出了错误，想到一个办法，那就是只重新处理在错误前后的10张卡片。10张卡片通过机器所需的时间，要比50张少多了，因此当那有“病”的50张卡片还在跑的同时，他们让这10张快速通过，然后再把正确的卡片插回去，一切便回复正常了。十分聪明。 他们就用这种方法加快速度。事实上也别无他法了，如果他们碰到错误就停下来补救，进度一定落后。当然，你知道就在他们忙得不可开交时，发生了什么事，他们在蓝色的一叠卡片内发现有错，因此他们加进去一叠黄色的卡片，它们比蓝色的一叠运行快多了。而在紧要关头——弄完这个错误他们还要处理白色的卡片——我这当主管的跑进来了。 “不要来烦我们，”他们说，我再也没去烦他们。一切顺利，我们如期缴出答案。 刚开始时，我只是个无名小卒，后来我当了小组长，因此见过一些伟大人物。一生之中最令我振奋的经验之一，就是碰到这些光芒四射的物理学家。 当然，其中包括了费米（Enrico Fermi）。有一次他从芝加哥南下；那时我在研究一个题目，也得到了一些结果。可是牵涉到的计算十分复杂困难。通常我是这方面的高手：我总是能预测答案会是什么，又或者解释为什么会得到某些答案。可是这个题目太复杂了，我简直无法解释为什么得到那样的答案。 我们举行了会议，告诉费米我的困难，然后开始描述我得到的结果。他说：“等一下，在你告诉我答案之前，让我先想想。它应该是如此这般（他对了），然后因为这样跟这样，答案便变成这样这样，最明显的解释是……” 他做的就是我最在行的事，但他比我高明十倍。那真是印象深刻的一课！ 还有就是伟大的数学家冯诺曼。我们经常在星期天一起散步——通常在附近的峡谷中，同行的还有贝特及巴查，那是很愉快的经验。冯诺曼教会了我一个很有趣的想法： 你不需要为身处的世界负任何责任。因此我就形成了强烈的“社会不负责任感”，从此成为一个快活逍遥的人。大家听好了，我的不负责任感全都是由于冯诺曼在我思想上撒下的种子而起的！ 我也跟波耳（Niels Bohr）会过面。那时候，由于受到德国纳粹的威胁，他化名为贝克，跟他一起的是儿子吉姆·贝克，本名是艾殊·波耳（Aage Bohr）。 他们从丹麦跑来，都是大大有名的物理学家。对很多大人物而言，老波耳就像上帝一般伟大。 他第一次来时，我们开了一次会。大家都想一睹伟大波耳的风采，因此很多人都来了，我们讨论了原子弹的问题，我坐在后面的某个角落。他开过会后又走了，而我从头到尾都只能在众多脑袋瓜的缝隙间看到一点点波耳的影子而已。 他第二次要来开会的那天早上，我接到一个电话。 “喂，费曼吗？” "I am." “我是吉姆·贝克。”是他儿子，“我父亲和我想跟你谈谈。” “跟我谈？我是费曼，我只是个……” “没错了。８点钟可不可以？” 于是，就在早上８点，大家都还没起床之际，我跑去跟他们会面。我们跑进技术区的一个办公室，他说：“我们在思索怎样可以令原子弹威力更大，我们想到这些这些。” 我说：“不，这行不通，这没有效……哗啦哗啦等等。” 他又说：“那么这跟这呢？” 我说：“听起来好像比较像样，但这里头包含了这个笨主意呢。” 我们反复检讨很多想法，反复争论。伟大的波耳不断点他的烟斗——它却不断熄灭。他讲的话很难听得懂——咕哝咕哝的不容易明白。小波耳讲的就易懂多了。 “好吧，”他最后说，一边又在点烟斗，“我想我们可以把那些大人物请进来了。”波耳父子把其他人叫来，一起讨论。 后来小波耳告诉我究竟发生了什么事。上次他们来访后，老波耳跟他儿子说：“记得坐在后面那小伙子的名字吗？他是唯一不怕我的人，只有他会指出我的荒谬想法。 下次我们要讨论什么时，单找这些只会说'是，波耳博士' 的人是不行的，让我们先找那个小子谈谈。 " 在这方面我总是笨笨的。我总是忘记在跟谁说话，而一味担心物理上的问题。如果对方的想法差劲，我就告诉他那很差劲。如果他的想法很好，我就说很好。就那么简单，这就是我的处事方式。我觉得那样很好，很愉快——大前提是你要做得到。我很幸运正是这样的一个人。 我们的计算做完之后，接下来就是试爆了。那时候阿琳刚去世不久，我请了个短假在家，有一天收到通知：“某某日，婴儿便要出生……” 我立刻坐飞机回去，抵达营区时，巴士正要离开，于是我直接跟大家到离试爆地点20英里的地方等候。我们有一具无线电，而理论上他们会告诉我们，原子弹将在什么时候爆炸。可是无线电坏了，因此我们根本不知道外面发生什么事。不过就在试爆前数分钟，对讲机又好了，他们说对我们这些离得较远的人来说，大约只剩20秒了；其他人在较近的地方，只有6英里。 我们每人发了一副墨镜，以供观测试爆之用。sunglasses? 在20英里之外，再戴上墨镜能看到什么鬼？我在想，一般亮光是不会伤害眼睛的，唯一能伤害到眼睛的大概只有紫外线。我坐在卡车的挡风玻璃后面，觉得这样便能看得清楚又能兼顾安全；因为紫外线是穿不过玻璃的。 时间到了，远处出现的强大闪光亮得我立刻躲下来，在卡车的地板上看到一团紫色的东西。我对自己说：“不对，这只是眼睛内出现的视觉暂留现象。”再度抬起头来，看到一道白光转变成黄光，又再变成橘光，在冲击波的压缩及膨胀作用下，云状物形成又散去。 最后，出现了一个巨大的橘色球，它的中心是那么的亮，以致成了橘色，边缘却有点黑的，慢慢上升翻腾。突然我明白，这是一大团的烟，充满了闪光，火焰的热力则不断往外冒出。