When Pigs fly! Yes, it really happened 66 years ago. This Vegas image with the plume arising in background from the Priscilla Test was captured by Las Vegas News Bureau photographer Don English. A LIFE magazine "picture of the week."
June 24, 1957: the United States conducted the Priscilla nuclear test at the Nevada Proving Ground, part of Operation Plumbbob. The device was suspended by a balloon 700 feet in the air and detonated with a yield of 37 kilotons.
17 sec clip:
710 pigs (standing in for soldiers) were exposed to the blast, thermal, and radiation effects of the explosion & to test the effects of flying debris on living targets. Prior pig experiments during tests Franklin (June 2, 0.14 kt) and Wilson (June 18, 10 kt) failed when those explosions were too small and too large, respectively...pigs were scorched into crispy burned bacon along with super lethal dose of radiation.
The pigs were under the control of medical personnel at Walter Reed Army Hospital and were spread around 11 stations located 2,607 feet to 9,405 feet from ground zero. One station was cheekily named Pork Sheraton.
If you're a pig lover, may wanna skip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWHZFHX1gvI
In another experiment, a reinforced Mosler bank vault was installed 1,150 feet from ground zero and exposed to the ~75 psi overpressure from the explosion, to evaluate the effectiveness of a reinforced-concrete vault and steel vault door in providing protection against the effects of a nuclear detonation. Weighing 7.5 tons, the “door was mounted on a steel-plate box frame weighing 14.5 tons. When closed, the vault was airtight."
The massive vault which Mosler Safe Company president Edwin Mosler personally lobbied the Federal Civil Defense Administration to expose to the power of a nuclear blast (Mosler’s largest customer was the US gov’t) and remains anchored to Frenchman Flat at the test site to this day.
Frenchman Flat spans Area 5 and Area 11 just north of the closed-off secret town of Mercury, Nevada. Also, Frenchman Flat had the only detonation of an American artillery-fired nuclear projectile in the 1953 Upshot-Knothole Grable test using the 280mm M65 Atomic "Annie" Cannon.
Official film showing the Mosler vault door in action prior to the Priscilla test. According to a contemporaneous official report, the cost to execute of this element of the test “exceeded $500,000.” The contents inside the safe survived intact, but only because of its distance from ground zero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C76PJ21-ctg
Mosler versus the Atom: How safe is a safe (PDF)
When the "Priscilla" shock wave reached the reinforced observation blockhouse it hit the scientists & atomic technicians like a mule kick and tore doors from their hinges. As the radioactive dust settled over the scorched expanse known as Frenchman Flats, a highly excited civilian eagerly awaited permission to examine the test results. This moment was a long time coming for Edwin Mosler.
Viewed through another lens, the move was also a carefully engineered public relations stunt. Blurbs about the test sprouted in newspapers across the country as Mosler made sure everyone know precisely which company made the strongbox. The Mosler Safe Company’s largest customer was the U.S. gov't, and their marketing materials were packed with references to their high profile government work at the National Archives, Fort Knox, and now, on the atomic field of battle.
The Mosler Safe is still sitting out there in the desert, at the Nevada Test Site about 65 miles from Las Vegas. The door has been removed, but the colossal strongbox may likely remain intact until the end of time.
Now, where did Mr. Mosler get the idea of testing his safe against a nuke explosion? Check it...
June 24, 1946: Captain James E. Bishop was killed in a grisly accident during an Operation Crossroads "dress rehearsal" off Bikini Atoll. R.I.P.
The August 1946 issue of AAF Review mentions Rita Hayworth and the death of Captain James E. Bishop.
Reminds me of that propeller kill scene in Indiana Jones movie.
Also the plane "Dave's Dream" was previously the "Big Stink" an observation plane on the Nagasaki bombing. The "Little Guinea Swine" ('Blanchard' yesterday's post above) is mentioned in this clipping:
June 24, 1953: the Barbara Payton/Sonny Tufts pre-Strangelove low-budget atomic comedy RUN FOR THE HILLS opened.
June 24, 1954: the film adaptation of Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE CAINE MUTINY starring Humphrey Bogart premiered. Producer Stanley Kramer had planned to shoot the film in 3-D but decided that he did not want to force audiences to wear annoying glasses.
Dave Grusch explains Government Alien UFO Disclosure (wow!)...truly he's the new Chauncey Gardner!
June 1950
June 24, 1957: the United States conducted the Priscilla nuclear test at the Nevada Proving Ground, part of Operation Plumbbob. The device was suspended by a balloon 700 feet in the air and detonated with a yield of 37 kilotons.
17 sec clip:
710 pigs (standing in for soldiers) were exposed to the blast, thermal, and radiation effects of the explosion & to test the effects of flying debris on living targets. Prior pig experiments during tests Franklin (June 2, 0.14 kt) and Wilson (June 18, 10 kt) failed when those explosions were too small and too large, respectively...pigs were scorched into crispy burned bacon along with super lethal dose of radiation.
The pigs were under the control of medical personnel at Walter Reed Army Hospital and were spread around 11 stations located 2,607 feet to 9,405 feet from ground zero. One station was cheekily named Pork Sheraton.
If you're a pig lover, may wanna skip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWHZFHX1gvI
In another experiment, a reinforced Mosler bank vault was installed 1,150 feet from ground zero and exposed to the ~75 psi overpressure from the explosion, to evaluate the effectiveness of a reinforced-concrete vault and steel vault door in providing protection against the effects of a nuclear detonation. Weighing 7.5 tons, the “door was mounted on a steel-plate box frame weighing 14.5 tons. When closed, the vault was airtight."
The massive vault which Mosler Safe Company president Edwin Mosler personally lobbied the Federal Civil Defense Administration to expose to the power of a nuclear blast (Mosler’s largest customer was the US gov’t) and remains anchored to Frenchman Flat at the test site to this day.
Frenchman Flat spans Area 5 and Area 11 just north of the closed-off secret town of Mercury, Nevada. Also, Frenchman Flat had the only detonation of an American artillery-fired nuclear projectile in the 1953 Upshot-Knothole Grable test using the 280mm M65 Atomic "Annie" Cannon.
Official film showing the Mosler vault door in action prior to the Priscilla test. According to a contemporaneous official report, the cost to execute of this element of the test “exceeded $500,000.” The contents inside the safe survived intact, but only because of its distance from ground zero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C76PJ21-ctg
Mosler versus the Atom: How safe is a safe (PDF)
When the "Priscilla" shock wave reached the reinforced observation blockhouse it hit the scientists & atomic technicians like a mule kick and tore doors from their hinges. As the radioactive dust settled over the scorched expanse known as Frenchman Flats, a highly excited civilian eagerly awaited permission to examine the test results. This moment was a long time coming for Edwin Mosler.
Viewed through another lens, the move was also a carefully engineered public relations stunt. Blurbs about the test sprouted in newspapers across the country as Mosler made sure everyone know precisely which company made the strongbox. The Mosler Safe Company’s largest customer was the U.S. gov't, and their marketing materials were packed with references to their high profile government work at the National Archives, Fort Knox, and now, on the atomic field of battle.
The Mosler Safe is still sitting out there in the desert, at the Nevada Test Site about 65 miles from Las Vegas. The door has been removed, but the colossal strongbox may likely remain intact until the end of time.
Now, where did Mr. Mosler get the idea of testing his safe against a nuke explosion? Check it...
Quote:The American-Made Safe That Survived Hiroshima
In 1946, a U.S. Army Lieutenant surveying damage left by the massive explosion of the first atomic bomb in Hiroshima a year earlier, sent a letter to a safe-making company back in America. “I found in one of three structures standing, four large vaults built by the Mosler Safe Co. of Hamilton, Ohio,” he explained. “The vaults were entirely intact and except for the exterior being burned and rusted there was no damage.”
Two other vaults he added, made by a Toyko, Japan company, were completely destroyed.
At the time there was a heightened sense of security against attacks on American soil. Many banks advertised that valuables were better protected because they used Mosler safes.
Even the U.S government chimed in. Mosler was awarded a lucrative contract and eventually built a 25-ton blast door vault in West Virginia mountainside bunker used to hide classified and historical documents.
June 24, 1946: Captain James E. Bishop was killed in a grisly accident during an Operation Crossroads "dress rehearsal" off Bikini Atoll. R.I.P.
The August 1946 issue of AAF Review mentions Rita Hayworth and the death of Captain James E. Bishop.
Reminds me of that propeller kill scene in Indiana Jones movie.
Also the plane "Dave's Dream" was previously the "Big Stink" an observation plane on the Nagasaki bombing. The "Little Guinea Swine" ('Blanchard' yesterday's post above) is mentioned in this clipping:
June 24, 1953: the Barbara Payton/Sonny Tufts pre-Strangelove low-budget atomic comedy RUN FOR THE HILLS opened.
June 24, 1954: the film adaptation of Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE CAINE MUTINY starring Humphrey Bogart premiered. Producer Stanley Kramer had planned to shoot the film in 3-D but decided that he did not want to force audiences to wear annoying glasses.
Dave Grusch explains Government Alien UFO Disclosure (wow!)...truly he's the new Chauncey Gardner!
June 1950
"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong." – Thomas Sowell