Name: Donald
Status: other
Grade: other
Location: DC
Country: N/A
Date: 8/24/2005
Question:
Where can I find information on the technology used in
the cameras that were used to film the early atomic tests in the Pacific?
I read that some of the cameras used at the "Mike" test of the first
fusion device ran at 3.5 million frames per second effective speed. That
is astounding. I would like to learn more. Thanks!
Replies:
I am not sure where you would find out info about optical cameras, but in
the book: "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" the author Richard Rhodes
mentions "...flash X-ray equipment--high current X-ray tubes that pulsed
as rapidly as every ten-millionth of a second--proved most useful for
detonation-wave studies." page 573. Chapter 13 of the same book, entitled
"Trinity" pg. 617ff. describes the first atomic test and mentions high
speed photography and other high speed data acquisition (pg. 671ff.), but
"how fast" was not fully quantified, but certainly in the millisecond time
scale.
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