ATOM BOMB TESTS

Grey River Argus, 31 January 1946, Page 5

ATOM BOMB TESTS

TO BE PHOTOGRAPHED The Camera Arrangements (Rec. 9.15) NEW YORK, Jan. 29 The Associated Press states: In connection with the atomic bomb tests in May in the Marshall Islands, there will be cameras placed on top of one hundred foot steel toweis, airangcd in a circle, around Oikini atoll and these will photograph the atom bomb tests. The cameras will be controlled by radio', 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 cairy cameias closer than the manned planes. The tower cameras will be set up in batteries, on several islands. The instruments will be housed in small rooms. Each room will be shielded against X-Rays and other radioactive hazards. Heavier lead shielding than used for human beings 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 automaticaly at the moment that pictures are taken, and’ will 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 is made before human beings can approach the camera towers, due to radio-activity in the waters. In the first test the radio-activity may not be so intense, because the bomb will be dropped above the surface of the sea. But when a bomb is dropped at the surface, in the second test, the radio-activity would be increased. WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 Mr Byrnes announced that President Truman approved his proposal to invite members of U.N.O. Atomic Energy Commission to witness the atomic bomb tests in the Pacific. He emphasised that even with Mt. Truman’s approval, however, the proposal thus far should not be construed as the final Government policy on the subject. The Associated Press says that' if the recommendation is finally adopted, it would mean that officials from Britain, Russia, China, France, Australia, Canada, Poland, Jugolsavla, Holland, Brazil and Egypt would witness the experiments. Lieut.-General Kevin Campbell, retiring Chief of Ordnance said that it was not beyond the redlms of possibility that rocket weapons could reach any point in the world. The U.S. Army had developed a radar controled rocket which streaked vertically for 50 miles. German scientists who helped to develop th'e V weapons had been assisting the American Army in rocket research. “The time is coming when the gun as we know it will no longer exist. Maybe there will be a combination of conventional artillery and a rocket, witn the gun giving the initial impetus.” Major-General George Vandusen, Chief of Signal Corps Engineering and Technical Service, said that the Army scientists who contacted the moon would ’ attempt to increase radar’s power and sensitivity. The Army intended to build a new antenna base which would permit radar to scan the skies vertically as well as horizontally. This combined with the standard observations of the moon would make it possible to learn what effects the inosphere had upon radio waves.