John von Neumann - Hungarian/American Mathematician
(1902-1957)
June 1944
Working from a suggestion by James Tuck, von Neumann designs an explosive lens implosion system.

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A non-explosive lens implosion system simply makes use of explosive charges placed on the outside of the object to be imploded. The charges are fired at the same time and the shock waves move toward the center. However, since each shock wave actually diverges as it moves though the material, the waves reinforce where they collide producing points of high pressure. These points cause jets of matter to be squeezed outward, spoiling the implosion.

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In the explosive lens implosion system different types of explosive act as lenses in order to focus the diverging shock waves into converging waves. If the detonators are fired at the same time, the resulting converging wave compresses the core evenly.

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