Inventors: Edward Teller (USA) and Igor Kourtchatov (USSR) (Both created the Hydrogen bomb separately)

The hydrogen bomb, first conceived in 1942, is a fusion bomb. It uses a fission bomb to initiate a fusion reaction involving deuterium and tritium, two isotopes of hydrogen. This releases vast amounts of energy, making it thousands of times more powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Hydrogen bomb was given minimal attention by the United Sates until 1949 when the USSR tested its first fission bomb. Edward Teller, who had pushed for the development of a fusion bomb during the Manhattan project, proposed a design. The mathematician Stanislaw Ulam showed that his design would not work, and it was revised to the Teller-Ulam design.
The first Hydrogen bomb, “Ivy-Mike”, was tested by the U.S. on November 1^st 1952. It produced a mushroom cloud that was 100 miles in diameter. Eight months later on August 12^th 1953 the USSR tested its first Hydrogen bomb.
The Hydrogen bomb was immensely powerful. Unlike the fission bomb which had an upper limit to its size, the Hydrogen bomb could be made as powerful as was wanted. This bomb, in addition to the first fission bombs, made an all-out war between the US and the USSR even more frightening. According to J. Robert Oppenheimer: “It did not take atomic weapons to make war terrible, but the atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. It has made the prospect of … war unendurable.” (National…, 1988)

*Pictures from http://www.nv.doe.gov/news&pubs/photos&films/atm.htm

Sources:
Messadie, Gerald. Great Modern Inventions. Trans. Melanie Hanbury. New York: W&R Chambers, 1991.

National Geographic Society. Inventors and Discoveries Changing our World. Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1988.

Norris, Robert S. Enter the time warp. 12 Oct 2003. <http://whyfiles.org/186ed_teller/3.html>

Nuclearfiles.org. Statement by President Harry S. Truman on the Hydrogen Bomb, January 31 1950. 12 Oct 2003. <http://www.nuclearfiles.org/redocuments/1950/500131-hst-h-bomb.html> (Primary)

Photo Library – Atmospheric. U.S. Department of Energy. 11 Oct. 2003. <http://www.nv.doe.gov/news&pubs/photos&films/atm.htm>

Williams, Trevor I. A History of Invention from Stone Axes to Silicon Chips. New York: Checkmark Books, 1987.

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