1000 M.P.H. WIND

Grey River Argus, 30 January 1946, Page 5

1000 M.P.H. WIND

U.S. ATOM BOMB TESTS Expected Million Degrees Temperature (Rec. 11.40) NEW YORK, Jan. 29. Remarkable effects of the atomic bomb tests of the American Forces in the Pacific are being anticipated. American Navy and Army scientists predict that a wind ranging in velocity from 500 miles an hour to one thousand miles an hour will be one result. They also expect that an explosion temperature of one hundred million degrees Fahrenheit, and waves one hundred feet high will follow the dropping of the atomic bombs on the target fleet in the Pacific.

They are confident, however, that there is not even a remote possibility that any chain reaction will be caused which would affect far away areas.

The test will take place in May and in July at an alichorage in the Bikini AtolL in the Marshall Island group. Predictions of colossal disturbances have been made as the result of information '

made of the bombs that were dropped in the New Mexico Desert, and on Hiroshima and on Nagasaki. It has not been indicated that the new type of bomb will be used though Admiral Nimitz stated that there would be an opportunity during the exercises to try any new weapons. General MacArthur is reported to have stated that the United States possesses a bomb one thousand times more powerful than that which was dropped on Japan. Scientists who are engag'd on the preparation of data for the tests expect that, following in the wak<of the explosion, there will lie a true wind, ranging in velocity from 500 miles to one thousand miles an hour, though it is likely to be of short duration. A wind of 75 miles an hour is normally considered to be of hurricane force.

A fantastic temperature of one hundred million degrees Fahrenheit is expected to occur in the initial “ball of fire,” .and it is expected to drop sharply as heat waves move outward.

While no after-effects are expected from the bomb that is to be exploded above the water, there are precautions being taken against radio activity from the bomb ■" ’--.dMnnated on the surface. The inhabitants of the nearby islands will educated so as to them

against possible harm from radio active water and- clouds drifting from the scene of the explosions.

Scientists expect that the target ships will have to withstand a tremendous downward pressure. They say that at Hiroshima and at Nagasaki, the walls of some buildings directly under the burst were left standing, but roofs and floors were crushed into tlje ground. A steel frame structure of the Mitsubishi torpedo works at Nagasaki was collapsed by the pressure.