Cool Atom Bomb Photos

[gassy]

Capturing the Atom Bomb on Film - Audio & Photos - NYTimes.com

[Hugh R]

Amazing.

[Steve Carlton]

Cool link. Thanks.

[masraum]

A while back, something sparked some curiousity in me about the affects of atomic bombs. I read a couple of books and lots of stuff online about the affects on the Japanese, and IIRC, I ended up reading about chernobyl and it's affects on the people there.

Nuclear power, it is what it is, it exists and that's done. We won the war, and I think, nuclear power has in the past, and continues to deter the thought of war on the scale of WW1 & 2. From a certain point of view, it's a good thing if you choose to see it that way.

I've got a curious mind, and I think a mind at least some what like an engineer, analytical. The photos were fascinating, and I was frustrated when I got to the end because there weren't more.

At the same time, considering what nuclear weapons have done, and are capable of doing, it seems odd to read "cool" when commenting.

Steve, I don't want you to think I'm judging or anything. My first reaction was also "wow, cool!" Then my thoughts went down a road... Like I said, not judging, not saying anything about you at all, just a comment on the bigger picture. The photos, and the phenomenon are fascinating, very interesting, yes, even cool. Somehow, it just felt weird to have thought that.

[krichard]

I'm in awe looking at the photo's while at the same time thinking this is the most evil thing we have ever discovered.......

[trekkor]

I don't like atomic bombs...


KT

[sc_rufctr]

Fascinating and scary.

One of the greatest inventions ever... The ultimate big stick.

[tabs]

Back in the late 50's my Daddy worked on an Atomic Bomb Simulator....I still have the 16MM footage of that detonation. The Secratary of the Army was present.

[ODDJOB UNO]

i had my clearance to go into project mercury los alamos sandia labs and hollomon a.f.b amongst many others here in the sw. i got to go to trinity site where the 1st one was lit off. open once a year to civilians.

project mercury once in the gates and a lil drive is basically a small city of typical drab painted govt buildings. basically had everything to support quite a few people during the 50's 60' 70's. after you leave mercury it is a flat plain of yer typical basin and range geology. about 50 miles in or so are a group of mesas that the horizontal bore shots were performed. that 50 miles from mercury on either side of the road is the BIGGEST GOPHER FARM ON THE PLANET aka nuklar holes in the ground. sedan crater being one of the bigger ones. and when i say BIG I FREEKING MEAN BIG! like if you fell in YOU were a dead man no ifs ands or butts...........BIG! like BIGGER THAN YOUR BRAIN CAN FATHOM!


anyway right outside mercury was a group of bleachers. like at a baseball field but bigger. this was to hold all the vistors and dignitaries. the actual distance back then was ONLY maybe 3-5 miles from GROUND ZERO! they had very lil idea of fallouts effects despite blowing (2) up over japan. the intial thought was the actual explosion caused the human damage not so much fallout. see we were kind of on a very very STEEP LEARNING CURVE! as a self made student of these early tests there is after the freedom of info act quite abit of info to read on each and every test and its scientific purpose. obviously from the one shot is our nuklar artilliary piece proving that a cannon can deliver a nuke and various other tests over the years. operation plowshare was one to see if we could use nukes for mining, creating harbors etc by lighting them off. well anyway the info also shows a few that got away from them due to atmospheric weather conditions changing. as in john waynes entire cast on one movie in hurricane utah getting fallout, all the dead sheep in southern utah etc. this info also shows weather patterns for those days and where the fallout drifted and where it was recorded across the u.s.. remember when chernobyl lit off radiation was detected in the dairy cows in gilbert az. south east of phx in 3.5 days! yep traveled around the world in 3.5 days. during one of the nevada tests the winds during 1956/1957 drove fallout all the way to phx. az.


hence since we had these NUKLAR BOO BOOS over the years and the fact that instrumentation was usually if not always a beeatch to retreive from vertical shots(shafts in dez 1000's of feet down) they opted for horizontal shots over by rampart mesa and other mesas located there. so yeah over the years we learned that fallout is as bad if not worse than the actual detonation and the ensuent blast effects.


yeah cool stuff. just remember the world changed FOREVER that day back in july at trinity site new messiko, and the NUKLAR GENIE HAS BEEN LET OUT OF THE BOTTLE NEVER TO RETURN!


yes i had my hands in the tooling of nuklar bomb triggers,ICBM missile nose cones and towers, and actually signed my azz away at los alamos labs and machined "radiated parts." as far as i know from my RAD BADGES............MY NUTZ ARE NOT GLOWING ANYMORE!

[Seahawk]

My Dad was a nuke...interesting career arc from Army Ranger to managing the Savannah River Plant.

Plutonium 235 is for keeps.

[sammyg2]

The Manhattan project, the largest most expensive thing ever taken on at the time, cost $22 billion in today's dollars.
Kinda puts the $812 BILLION stimulus spending in perspective, doesn't it? 37 Manhattan projects.

Oh, BTW the Manhattan project created over 130,000 jobs. Real ones.

[krichard]

wow 130,000 jobs...... wonder if any of those 130,000 people felt any responsibility for the death of ~250,000 innocent civilians?

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by krichard

wow 130,000 jobs...... wonder if any of those 130,000 people felt any responsibility for the death of ~250,000 innocent civilians?

Maybe, but I bet many of them took comfort in the fact that they undoubtably saved at least 750,000 lives by making the invasion of japan unnecessary.

Go ahead and try to twist the truth all you want, we'll be here to set you straight.

[azasadny]

The pictures are amazing and horrible, at the same time.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by krichard

wow 130,000 jobs...... wonder if any of those 130,000 people felt any responsibility for the death of ~250,000 innocent civilians?

Right, because it's ONLY through the use of nukes that civilians are killed during war?

Apparently, there was a lot of nuke testing going on during WWI? I wonder if the folks that make Air planes, or ships, or submarines, or bullets, or gunpowder or bombs etc.... feel bad about the civilians that died

WWI

The total number of casualties in World War I, both military and civilian, were about 37 million: 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 6.8 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 5.7 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million.

WW2

World War II casualty statistics vary greatly. Estimates of total dead range from 50 million to over 70 million. The sources cited on this page document an estimated death toll in World War II of 62 to 78 million, making it the deadliest war ever. When scholarly sources differ on the number of deaths in a country, a range of war losses is given, in order to inform readers that the death toll is disputed. Civilians killed totaled from 40 to 52 million, including 13 to 20 million from war-related disease and famine. Total military dead: from 22 to 25 million, including deaths in captivity of about 5 million prisoners of war.
Recent historical scholarship

So, while the dropping of nukes wasn't a good thing, it was pretty much just a drop in the bucket when referenced against the rest of the war.

[TerryBPP]

Anyone know where I can get a print of the "Vip Observers" pic?

[IROC]

The lab where I work now was sort of the genesis of the atomic bombs. I drive past the Graphite Reactor every day. At one point in time, K-25 (or was it Y-12?) consumed 10% off all the electricity in the US enriching uranium. 10%. In one building. Sobering.

On the bright side, there is a group that is trying to build a full-up FIA race track on the old K-25 site. The only problem is that if you go off into a gravel trap, your car will become contaminated.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by IROC

The lab where I work now was sort of the genesis of the atomic bombs. I drive past the Graphite Reactor every day. At one point in time, K-25 (or was it Y-12?) consumed 10% off all the electricity in the US enriching uranium. 10%. In one building. Sobering.

On the bright side, there is a group that is trying to build a full-up FIA race track on the old K-25 site. The only problem is that if you go off into a gravel trap, your car will become contaminated.

10% in one building! ... That is Truly Fascinating.

Can you imagine the resources these scientists had at their disposal?

[tcar]

Nuclear weapons didn't just save the million or so lives in WWII, it has saved millions and millions probably since then by giving us the longest period in modern history without a major war.

BTW, the firebombing that was going on took more civillian lives than the atom bombs did, and would have continued if the A-bombs hadn't happened. More lives.

Not saying the bombs were all good or all bad.

[gassy]

Terry,
I could probably make a decent 5x7 print of the VIP pic if you wanna pm your address. I was gonna do it anyway for myself.