EDWARD TELLER - a.k.a. The father of the Hydrogen bomb, Autographs and Archive

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Aug 24, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-08-24 12:00:00 2019-08-24 12:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Autographs, Colonial Currency, Political Americana, Historic Guns https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/early-american-history-auctions/autographs-colonial-currency-political-americana-historic-guns-4347
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• Lot Description
  Autographs
  Edward Teller Archive - "The father of the Hydrogen bomb"
  EDWARD TELLER (1908-2003). Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who is known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb", although he did not care for the title. He made numerous contributions to nuclear and molecular physics, spectroscopy, and surface physics.
  Extensive Archive Collection of Autographed and other Items, financial documents and Personal Photographs related to the life of Edward Teller, about 20 or so items, mostly from later in life, overall Choice Very Fine to Mint. The Autographed items include:
  
  (1) July/August 1998 "Science & Technology Review" Magazine, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, "Celebrating Edward Teller at 90" his signed Photo on the Cover, Inscribed "To Margaret with thanks - Edward Teller".
  
  (1) Signed White Card, "Edward Teller" Crisp Mint, no date or place.
  
  (4) "Edward Teller" Each Individually Signed Insert Sheets, not yet numbered, for his Book stating: "First Edition of "Memoirs" is personally signed by Edward Teller - (Signed) in vivid blue ball-point pen "Edward Teller".
  
  (1) Note Signed, "Edward Teller", on a white album punched plain sheet: "To whom it may concern, regarding his thanks to a Margo Towner dated 1999 in his apparently very aged hand.
  
  (1) 1987 Booklet, not signed, "Excerpts From - Better A Shield Than A Sword - by Dr. Edward Teller" regarding Soviet Defense.
  
  (1) April 24, 1984-Dated, Typed Document, 4 pages. "The Secretary Of Defense Washington, D.C. - Memorandum For The STRATEGIC DEFENSE INITIATIVE ORGANIZATION By Presidential Authority Directives, "SDI" to eliminate the threat posed by nuclear ballistic missiles...", Typed Copy, signed in the concluding printed text, by Caspar W. Weinberger.
  
  (1) Early c. 1920's, 8" x 19", Formal B&W Photograph, not signed.
  
  (12) c. late 1990s to 2003 Personal Color Kodak Paper Photographs showing an aged Edward Teller at home with family, showing some of his personal awards and medals and other memorabilia. Several other Xerox copies of photos showing Teller with President Reagan and other notables.
  
  In addition there are various financial and his stock portfolio statements, receipts for shipments, etc. Overall, in excess over 20 items with (7) Signed. A most interesting mixture of personal and historical materials regarding "Edward Teller".
  Edward Teller (1908-2003) was a Hungarian-born American theoretical physicist. He is considered one of the fathers of the hydrogen bomb.
  
  Teller, along with Leo Szilard and Eugene Wigner, helped urge President Roosevelt to develop an atomic bomb program in the United States. Teller joined the Los Alamos Laboratory in 1943 as group leader in the Theoretical Physics Division. Teller became interested in the possibility of developing a hydrogen bomb after Enrico Fermi suggested that a weapon based on nuclear fission could be used to set off an even larger nuclear fusion reaction. Teller continued to push his ideas for a fusion weapon throughout the project despite physicists' skepticism that such a device could ever work.
  
  When Hans Bethe was selected as Director of the Theoretical Division, Teller became frustrated and refused to enagage in calculations for the implosion mechanism of the fission bomb. This caused tensions with other physicists at Los Alamos, as additional scientists had to be employed to do that work--including Klaus Fuchs, who was later revealed to be a Soviet spy.
  
  Teller was one of the few scientists to actually watch (with eye protection) the detonation of the Gadget during the Trinity Test in July 1945, rather than follow orders to lie on the ground with his back turned.
  
  In 1954, Teller testified against J. Robert Oppenheimer at his security clearance hearing. He was a major proponent of investigating non-military uses for nuclear explosives, and visited Israel often as their main advisor on nuclear matters.
  
  Edward Teller is often referred to as the "father of the hydrogen bomb." After the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949, Teller worked to convince President Truman to develop a crash program for the hydrogen bomb, which he believed was feasible. In 1950, Truman approved the hydrogen bomb program, and Teller returned to Los Alamos later that year to begin working on a design.
  
  Teller collaborated with Polish mathematician Stanislaw Ulam and came up with the first workable design for a thermonuclear device in 1951. A year later, the United States tested it first ever thermonuclear device at Eniwetok Atoll in the South Pacific. The Mike Shot, as it was known, yielded 10 megatons of TNT and was roughly 1000 times larger than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima seven years earlier. The design, which came to be known as the Teller-Ulam design, still remains classified.
  
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