Overview

A scientist's recollection of his life as a junior member of the Manhattan Project, 'Rider of the Pale Horse' recounts McAllister Hull's involvement in various nuclear-related enterprises during and after World War II. Fresh from a summer job working with explosives in the chemistry department of an ordnance plant, Hull was drafted in 1943, after his freshman year in college. Unlike other accounts written by scientists and historians of that era, Hull's narrative offers a realistic picture of the dangerous and messy job that GIs and civilian powder men were asked to do. Life in the workshops where bomb components were constructed was very different from life in the offices where they were designed. Hull's description of his postwar work supporting the Bikini Atoll tests in the Pacific and the early concerns about the effects of a hydrogen bomb explosion illuminate the Dark Age of nuclear weaponry. John Hull's handsome illustrations show technicians and scientists at work and bring the story to life.

Full Product Details

9780826335531

Table of Contents

Reviews

.,. a valuable contribution to our understanding of the development of the atomic age. Hull's book reminds us that such momentous developments as the first atomic bomb were the work of real - but not average - individuals tinkering, experimenting, guessing, trying, failing, and succeeding.

Author Information

McAllister Hull and Amy Bianco; Illustrated by John Hull

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