# Chain reaction of doom

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-reaction-of-doom/1006159>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** movies, tv-shows-scripted, comic-books-manga, books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [August 24, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-reaction-of-doom/1006159 "2024-08-24T20:28:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chain-reaction-of-doom/1006159/5 "2024-08-24T22:47:11Z")

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We had [a thread in FQ related to this](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-first-put-forth-the-idea-that-splitting-atoms-would-make-a-powerful-weapon/1003367/3) recently. Early stories include The World Set Free, by H. G. Wells in 1914; The Crack of Doom, by Robert Cromie in 1895, and Last and First Men, by Olaf Stapleton, in 1930. Note that of those three, only Wells’ story is actually what we would call a nuclear reaction; the other two are matter-annihilation devices.

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