A letter written by Albert Einstein encouraging the US government to develop an atomic bomb is going up for auction.
The 1939 note, which was addressed to President Franklin D Roosevelt, includes a warning that the Nazi regime in Germany was probably capable of and were indeed making similar weapons, so therefore, the Americans ought to get a handle on the situation.
The Manhattan Project was established three years later and created the bomb that was eventually dropped on Japan, killing more than 240,000 people.
Einstein’s letter - which is expected to go for $4 million - is part of a collection of items previously owned by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who died aged 65 in 2018, going on sale at Christie’s in New York in September.
The note, dated of August 1939, reads: "It is conceivable - though much less certain - that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may thus be constructed.”
Einstein is believed to have regretted his involvement in the creation of the bomb and in making sure that the United States were the only country to make nuclear weapons.
In 1947, he said: "Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in producing an atomic bomb, I would never have lifted a finger."
Other items from the late computing genius being put up for sale that mirror his interest in the history of his field include a computer from 1971 and a restored DEC PDP 10: K1-10 model.
Of his former colleague, Bill Gates said: "Personal computing would not have existed without him."
