# Heinlein's "Blowups Happen" - editorial history question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heinleins-blowups-happen-editorial-history-question/613278>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 18, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heinleins-blowups-happen-editorial-history-question/613278 "2012-02-18T22:12:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heinleins-blowups-happen-editorial-history-question/613278/1 "2012-02-18T22:12:38Z")

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I’m re-re-re-reading the collection of R.A. Heinlein’s short stories, “The Past Through Tomorrow,” first published in 1967 but the edition I’m reading (the 14th) was published in 1982. In the forward, written by Damon Knight, mention is made of the included story “Blowups Happen,” and notes that it was written “5 years before the bomb” and the copyright acknowledgment page shows it as ©1940.

Near the beginning of this story, one character thinks of an atomic pile as being equal to one hundred million tons of high explosive, or “a thousand Hiroshimas.”

Was Heinlein really _that_ prescient? Was there a reason in 1940 to assume that an A-bomb might be dropped on Hiroshima? Or was that sentence (and the one that follows it) added ex post facto, without having to indicate a later copyright date in the collection?

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**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heinleins-blowups-happen-editorial-history-question/613278/2 "2012-02-18T22:22:16Z")

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From the [Wiki article:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowups_Happen)

> [@](#):
>
> The story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1940, before any nuclear reactors had ever been built, and for its appearance in the 1946 anthology The Best of Science Fiction, Heinlein made some modifications to reflect how a reactor actually worked.

I assume he added the Hiroshima reference during this edit.

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**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\
**Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heinleins-blowups-happen-editorial-history-question/613278/3 "2012-02-18T22:32:28Z")

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> [@SmartAleq](#):
>
> From the [Wiki article:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blowups_Happen)
> 
> I assume he added the Hiroshima reference during this edit.

Thanks for that link, **SmartAleq**! I know our library has “Expanded Universe;” I’ll have to see is the Hiroshima reference in the original 1940 version therein.

Don’t know why I didn’t think to consult the wikigod.

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heinleins-blowups-happen-editorial-history-question/613278/4 "2012-02-19T02:14:45Z")

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Holy cow, we did almost this exact same thread back in 2002:

> **[Heinlein's story "Blowups Happen"](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=102573)**
>
> I’m reading a compilation of Robert A. Heinlein’s stories. It was printed in 1967. It includes the story “Blowups Happen,” about an atomic energy plant. This story was originally published in 1940, according to the copyright page. It mentions both...