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The Christy Gadget is the informal name for the plutonium device detonated inthe Trinity test on July 16, 1945. In September 1944, Robert Christy, workingin the theoretical implosion group, proposed a novel concept that altered thedesign of the nuclear core in Fat Man. While scientists originally intended touse a hollow sphere of plutonium, this design entailed substantial risk, due tothe likelihood of asymmetries resulting from implosion. Christy proposedchanging the design to a solid sphere of plutonium with a modulated neutronsource, and the design was eventually adopted, tested at Trinity, and used inthe attack on Nagasaki. While there is no question regarding the important rolethat Christy played in demonstrating its feasibility as a reliable design,there is a debate as to who initially proposed the idea; though most sourceshave attributed this invention to Christy, some historical sources haveattributed credit to Christy's group leader, Rudolf Peierls, or indeed otherscientists. This paper seeks to outline and resolve this dispute. We presentnew unclassified evidence extracted from previously unavailable sources (tounclassified audiences) from the National Security Research Center archives atLos Alamos National Laboratory. This evidence consists of 1945-1946 patentdocumentation, oral history interview tapes of Christy and Peierls, and monthly1944 progress reports from the Theoretical Division. Though Christy and Peierlsshare joint credit on the patent, both Christy's and Peierls' words andwritings, together with sources from Hans Bethe and Edward Teller, support thetraditional view that Christy was indeed the originator of the idea. WhileChristy does deserve the majority of the credit for the invention and design,we acknowledge the important role Peierls and von Neumann played in itsdevelopment.

Who Invented the Trinity Nuclear Test's Christy Gadget? Patents and Evidence from the Archives