Scientist?

This is coolbert:

This from a previous blog entry:

"May there not be methods of using explosive energy incomparably more intense than anything heretofore discovered? Might not a bomb no bigger than an orange be found to possess a secret power to destroy a whole block of buildings—nay, to concentrate the force of a thousand tons of cordite and blast a township at a stroke?" - - Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, 1924.

That quotation as attributed to Churchill as originally found in the article:

"'Shall We All Commit Suicide?'. Pall Mall (Sep 1924). Reprinted in Thoughts and Adventures (1932) — Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill"

Also I ask the question: "And how exactly was Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill able to have the vision of the atomic bomb - - in 1924 - - way before the discovery of nuclear fission was even discovered? Can someone tell me that?"

Discoveries of sub-atomic particles such as the proton [1919] the neutron [1932] and the fissionable reaction of uranium [1938] the significance of which would be not so readily apparent to a non-scientist such as Churchill.

"The neutron has been the key to nuclear power production. After the neutron was discovered in 1932, it was realized in 1933 that it might mediate a nuclear chain reaction . . . When nuclear fission was discovered in 1938, it was soon realized that this might be the mechanism to produce the neutrons for the chain reaction"

The BIG BOOM!

Winston Churchill however friendly with and in conservation with some of the top scientists of the time, to include Einstein. Churchill was indeed far ahead of the learning curve, much more than his political contemporaries:

From "'Churchill and the Jews: A Lifelong Friendship' By Martin Gilbert"

"Among Churchill's visitors in the spring of 1933 was German born Albert Einstein, who had been in the United States when Hitler came to power . . Einstein, who was five years younger than Churchill, visited him at Chartwell, where he asked Churchill's help in bringing Jewish scientists from Germany. Churchill responded at once, encouraging his friend Professor Frederick Lindemann - - who was at Chartwell during Einstein's visit - - to travel to Germany and seek out Jewish Scientists who could be found places at British universities."

This too from Churchill. Again, the man far head of his peers, beyond that of almost anyone else for that matter!

"New sources of power ... will surely be discovered. Nuclear energy is incomparably greater than the molecular energy we use today. The coal a man can get in a day can easily do five hundred times as much work as himself. Nuclear energy is at least one million times more powerful still. If the hydrogen atoms in a pound of water could be prevailed upon to combine and form helium, they would suffice to drive a thousand-horsepower engine for a whole year. If the electrons, those tiny planets of the atomic systems, were induced to combine with the nuclei in hydrogen, the horsepower would be 120 times greater still. There is no question among scientists that this gigantic source of energy exists. What is lacking is the match to set the bonfire alight, or it may be the detonator to cause the dynamite to explode. The scientists are looking for this." — Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill "'Fifty Years Hence'. Strand Magazine (Dec 1931). Reprinted in Popular Mechanics (Mar 1932)"

[In his last major speech to the House of Commons on 1 Mar 1955, Churchill quoted from his original printed article, nearly 25 years earlier. Churchill referring not only to the fissionable uranium reaction but also to thermonuclear fusion as well!]

A politician such as Churchill not needing to be a scientist himself but only be aware of the potentiality, on a friendly basis with the experts who ARE KNOWLEDGEABLE AND CONVERSANT IN SUCH MATTERS!

coolbert.