Components of 'Little Boy' Sold at Auction

The controversial plugs Little
Boy atomic bomb still carry labels,
dated 7 August 1945, written by
Morris Jeppson, the Enola Gay
weapons test officer.

The original red arming plug and green safety plug that were built for Little Boy, the first of only two atomic bombs ever used in combat, have been sold at auction for $167 000. The purchaser was Clay Perkins, a retired physicist in Rancho Santa Fe, California. The sale went ahead despite a last-minute attempt by the US Air Force to block it for national security reasons.

The US B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped Little Boy on Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945. The 9000-pound bomb had an explosive yield equal to 20 000 tons of TNT, and is believed to have killed more than 140 000 people. Morris Jeppson, the aircraft's weapons test officer, removed the plugs moments before the bomb was released. The green safety plug was used to test the device on the aircraft, and the red arming plug was a spare identical to those used to help trigger the bomb's detonation. They are the only parts of the original bomb that survived. Jeppson kept them as mementos but finally decided to sell them because he wanted to leave some inheritance to his family. "There were four serious bidders for the parts," says Levi Morgan, a director of Butterfields Auctioneers in San Francisco, "but only two went above $100 000."

The air force argued in federal court that the sale should be stopped for two reasons: It would violate national security, and the plugs were US government property. On 14 June, the air force lost on both counts. "Veterans of every war took home government property," Morgan says, "so it's a bit awkward to try and use this defense now."

Perkins says he wanted the plugs for both historical and personal reasons. "These items are the most significant physical artifacts of the beginning of the atomic age," he points out. "And the dropping of the bomb also sparked my interest in physics." He says he'd be willing to loan the bomb plugs to a museum at a later date but, for now, "they are very safely locked up."

Paul Guinnessy