Fusor Forums

The Atomic Heritage Foundation has just placed a video on you tube of some 16mm film footage shot by the Physicist, Hugh Bradner while at Los Alamos during the Manhattan project. It is really fabulous.

While Bradner was given permission to shoot on site, he did get some sensitive stuff that was never reviewed or nixed by the authorities. Among the intersting stuff was the 200 foot concrete bowl designed to catch plutonium from an failed tests that were planned but never done and many other interesting near secret stuff.

The last part shows a lot of scientists at play and even snippets of the Bradner's wedding which was at the home of Dorothy McKibben, the famous official welcomer in the single office in Santa Fe for arriving personnel.

Neat stuff!

http://www.atomicheritage.org/index.php ... g-fun.html

Richard Hull

Unbelievable.

The most amazing component of this newly-discovered print (besides the striking color) is the footage of what is apparently the prep area at TA-10 (Bayo Canyon), site of the implosion tests. Personnel are depicted handling radiolanthanum (Ba-140/La-140 from the Graphite Reactor in Oak Ridge) storage pigs after about the 3-min. mark.

The TA-10 site is now publicly accessible and contaminated with enticing radioactive collectibles, and there are concrete markers warning not to disturb soil until "2142 AD. See County Records."

The natural scenery that so captivated this cameraman in the 1940s has changed very little. You'd think this were shot today or last week, but for the telltale ephemera of human equipment and fashion trends and the very occasional scratch on the film.

-Carl

Richard
was the "Hull" pictured towards the end, one of your relations??

Thanks for this wonderful link. You always seem to give us such rewarding posts.

I have long been fascinated by the scope and breadth of the Manhatten Project. It is amazing to think of the engineering and scientific accomplishments brought forth by all the people involved. Since reading "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" I have had a lot of respect for those who ushered in the atomic age. This movie almost makes you feel as if youare there. I was not aware of any color footage of any of the activities there, let alone one showing the personal side of the people involved.

Again, a wonderful link!

John Taylor

John, No relation to the Hull in the movie, nor to Cordell Hull the Secretary of State then, either. My dad was in the Army Air Corps during the war.

Richard Hull