CAMERA RECORDS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21934, 31 January 1946, Page 5

CAMERA RECORDS

ATOMIC J3OMBING RADIO-CONTROL UNITS LAND AND AIR PHOTOS (10 a.m.) NEW YORK, Jan. 30. Cameras on top of 100 ft. steel towers, arranged in a circle around Bikini atoll in the Marshall Islands, will photograph the atom bomb tests on naval vessels in May, says the Associated Press. The cameras will be radio-controlled from a distant ship. Other cameras will take photographs from piloted planes at a safe distance from the explosions. In addition, several pilotless radiocontrolled aircraft will carry cameras closer than the manned planes.

The tower cameras will set up in batteries on several islands. The instruments will be housed in small rooms, each shielded against X-rays and other radio-active hazards.

Heavier _ lead shielding than for humans will be required because photographic film is most sensitive to fogging by even a slight excess of radio-active rays.

The cameras will point through shutters which will open automatically the moment the pictures are taken and close immediately afterwards. Special filters will prevent the millions of degrees of heat generated by the explosion from burning the film. It may be several weeks after the test before humans can approach the camera towers due to the water’s radio-activity. In the first test, the radio-activity may not be so intense because the bomb will be dropped above the surface, but when the bomb is dropped at the surface in the second test the radio-activity would be increased.