No Atomic Power For Propulsion For Century

Northern Advocate, 24 August 1945, Page 7

No Atomic Power For Propulsion For Century

(Rec. 11.25 a.m.) NEW YORK, Aug. 23. Except for local radio activity, the effects of the atomic bomb are completely harmless until the moment of detonatiion, says the “New York Herald-Tribune” in an editorial. There would seem to be no way in which a defender could explode them prematurely and there was no technical reason why the United States should not manufacture and store enough of them to blow half the world’s cities to bits at a few hours’ notice. Peaceable uses for the new power were less, immediately promising. There was no present prospect of chaining and utilising the energy released by the bomb. Sir George Thomson, head of the British scientists who worked on the production of the atomic bomb, said he saw no atomic force being used in motor cars or aeroplanes for about a century. Sir George added that moralists proclaiming against the wickedness of the bomb’s use were wrong. It was much better that the atomic bomb should have been used and its power shown, than that it should have been developed by various Governments in competition and made secretly without any knowing whether a rival was on the point of success, or if the weapon really had the power expected from it or not.

It was at least known what to expect and this knowledge would be the greatest force for peace and sanity. He did not agree that these advantages could be possessed if scientists had refused to develop it. They pressed on with desperate energy to develop their knowledge, the object being to finish off the Japanese war.