An absolute Must see.........the Atomic Testing Public Awareness 1955

[hammersley]

The way it use to be when I was a lad... ...



Atomic Test Effects in the Nevada Test Site Region

 

[Wayne M.]

"For persons outside the nearby area, flash is only an interesting phenomenon. The flash has been seen in Las Vegas in daytime. Predawn shots have been seen in Kalispell (Mont. ), in West Texas, and on the Pacific Coast. "



That's amazing!



What would some pols and the public say today?

 

[BullyDogJason]

good read.

 

[rbattelle]

Regarding the flash, Richard Feynman has an humorous little commentary in his book, "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!". Regarding the Trinity test:

They gave out dark glasses that you could watch it with. Dark glasses! Twenty miles away, you couldn't see a damn thing through dark glasses. So I figured the only thing that could really hurt your eyes (bright light can never hurt your eyes) is ultraviolet light. I got behind a truck windshield, because ultraviolet can't go through glass, so that would be safe, and so I could see the damn thing... . I'm probably the only guy who saw it with the human eye.

I think he meant "naked eye" in that last sentence.



-Ryan

 

[fest3er]

Down at the Organ Mountains (about 50 mi. south of the Trinity site, IIRC), a rancher's daughter, blind since birth, asked, "What was that?" when it was detonated.

A nuke emits a very, very large portion of the EM spectrum in a very short burst when detonated, from HF, through visible, past UV beyond x/gamma rays.

Glass blocks/reflects/refracts/scatters around 90% of UVa but not UVb (or vice-versa; I always mix them up). So if a nuke emitted 10,000 times the amount of UV normally receive from sunlight, he was probably exposed to many times more UV than he normally got from sunshine. Radiation was a new field back then, but the health physicists certainly weren't clueless.

 

[GHarman]

The real power

Gamma, X-rays and Neutrons.

The reason, IMHO, the Blind girl noticed the flash is the Neutrons interacting with the fluid and nerve endings in her eyes. Em, UV a&b will not do that.

Neutrons will penetrate anything except materials containing hydrogen atoms. In hydrogen containing fluids/materials they are slowed down and bounce around. They are very dense, high energy particles that can initially travel near the speed of light.

X-rays emanate from the electron cloud when an electron is removed.

Gamma rays emanate from the nucleus of an atom when one or more neutrons or protons are forced out of the bond.

I have also seen the bleechers set up, near Mercury, Nevada for the purpose of witnessing those first tests. Wow! What they did NOT know!!!!!!

Shhhhh, somebody with a dark coat and sunglasses is knocking at my door. There's some black cars surrounding my house. They got MG's and dogs. Did I say something:-lafGregH

 

[BullyDogJason]

this last weekend my wifes grandpa was telling me about how he used to work at the nuclear test site. some of the stories he had about bomb tests were amazing