Post archives
Filtering for posts tagged with ‘1950s’
2013
August 2013
2
Meditations | Visions
I thought I knew a lot about nuclear fallout, but digging into the details taught me some subtle but important points about how it worked.
June 2013
21
Redactions | Visions
Making sense of the worst radiological accident in US history.
March 2013
29
Meditations
How many ways are there to talk about secrecy? Quite a few.
15
Meditations | Redactions
Did atomic secrets kill Lt. Col. Paul P. Stoutenburgh?
February 2013
25
Redactions
A poem and song, both classified "secret," shed light on the early days of continental nuclear testing.
January 2013
22
Visions
The U.K. Atomic Energy Authority's bizarre coat of arms, and more H-bomb drawings from George Gamow.
11
Visions
An investigation into the graphical history of the UN nuclear watchdog.
2012
December 2012
21
Meditations
Children and existential fear, from the high Cold War to Stockton, California, from Stockton to Newtown, Connecticut.
14
Visions
How does one recruit nuclear weapons designers? In the 1950s, you could just take out ads in popular magazines.
October 2012
12
Meditations
A new memoir about living next to Rocky Flats and what its perspective might be able to do for nuclear historians.
September 2012
12
Redactions
What drove Edward Teller to push for a 10,000 megaton hydrogen bomb?
5
Redactions
In 1955, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission experimentally answered the question none of us were asking: if you nuke beer, does it change the taste?
August 2012
17
Visions
When "atomic" beat "nuclear," and when we stopped defining our age by our reactors.
July 2012
27
Visions
A recent Russian-language book has a treasure trove of rare images of the Soviet atomic bomb project.
20
Visions
A step-by-step guide to firing the Davy Crockett, the "atomic bazooka," and the smallest nuke in the Cold War US arsenal.
13
Visions
What does an actual nuclear explosion sound like? Not what you'd think, from most nuclear test footage.
11
Redactions
Even the real Dr. Strangelove dreaded getting judged by the standards of "loyalty" required for a security clearance.
9
Meditations
"Be sure that no open flame, lighted cigarette, or other spark potential is present when the bomb is uncovered and opened..."
2
Meditations
Reports from the annual meeting for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations: Farm Hall, David Lilienthal, Atoms for Peace.
June 2012
27
Redactions
Hans Bethe on why it was safe to declassify Project SUNSHINE, a study of the global effects of nuclear fallout.
20
Redactions
Why Hans Bethe wanted to postpone the test of the first hydrogen bomb in 1952.
18
Meditations
What would have happened if the US hadn't decided to try and build an H-bomb in early 1950? Some alternative scenarios are considered.
13
Redactions
Hours after the first H-bomb was detonated, the press knew about it. But why did the government try to keep it secret for years after that?
1
Visions
Photographs of gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment, past and present.
May 2012
28
Meditations
Gas centrifuges could have been made to work during the Manhattan Project, but they didn't figure out how.
23
Redactions
Why praise of Operation Argus gives me the willies.
18
Visions
How many nuclear tests include showgirls? Not that many.
April 2012
Meditations
In February 1951, the Atomic Energy Commission reported on the "pleasant" experience of rooting out a high-placed homosexual.
6
Visions
A selection of Time magazine covers featuring nuclear weapons topics over the decades.
February 2012
29
Redactions
A Civil Defense pamphlet from 1956 explains how to dispose of the millions of corpses after a "nuclear bomb disaster." Includes a flowchart!
