The 100 Foot Tower

Kenneth T. Bainbridge, Director of the Trinity Project contracted with the Blaw-Know Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to manufacture the steel tower to Bainbridge's specification. It was then shipped in sections to New Mexico where Ted Brown's Construction Company of Albuquerque assembled it.

Gadget

The nuclear device detonated at Trinity, nicknamed "Gadget," was shaped like a large steel globe. Like the Fat Man bomb dropped on Nagasaki, it was a plutonium implosion device. Plutonium implosion devices are more efficient and powerful than gun-type uranium bombs like the Little Boy bomb detonated over Hiroshima.

Plutonium implosion devices use conventional explosives around a central plutonium mass to quickly squeeze and consolidate the plutonium, increasing the pressure and density of the substance. An increased density allows the plutonium to reach its critical mass, firing neutrons and allowing the fission chain reaction to proceed. To detonate the device, the explosives were ignited, releasing a shock wave that compressed the inner plutonium and led to its explosion.

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