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The
Atomic Bomb
DOCTOR OF SCIENCE EXPLAINS RESEARCH AND DISCOVERY
Dr. J.
Stanley Lewis D.Sc., of Woolwich, the son-in-law of Major Edgar and Mrs.
Edgar Jones, Barry, gave comprehensive
explanation of, atomic research when he spoke to Barry Rotary Club at the
Barry Hotel, Barry, on Thursday of last week.
The
President (Mr. Bernard Tyler) was in the chair.
Dr.
Lewis explained how Scientific knowledge in the atomic, and electronic field
had developed and revealed that we lost our most promising scientist in the
first world war. At the age of 24, a scientist named Moseley had made
advanced discoveries in the field of radio activity. But he was called up
and killed by a Turkish bullet when out on patrol. Had Moseley lived he
would undoubtedly be the leading atomic scientist of to-day.
Dr.
Lewis said that until 1940 the making of radio active carbon was the extent
of our discovery in the field, and up to that time scientists throughout the
world had shared their knowledge, the discovery in 1940 that by bombarding
uranium with neutrons you could break it into two new particles opened up
possibilities in the atomic field so important that nations clamped down a
curtain of secrecy on their research
Everything went behind closed doors and nothing was now allowed to leak out
except facts which we knew the other person possessed.
Dr.
Lewis said that the bomb dropped over Hiroshima had to be carried by a, four
engined bomber. The bomb was of considerable weight although the uranium in
It weighed only 200 lbs. at the most. But the parts of the bomb had to be
packed into thick walls to protect the personnel and also to prevent it
going off too quickly. That bomb was made of uranium 235, but the bomb
dropped on Nagasaki was made from plutonium, a metal which did not exist on
earth and had been made from uranium 238. Plutonium was a heavier metal and
it was easier to make atomic bombs from it than from uranium 235.
We
were now threatened with a far heavier bomb, the hydrogen bomb, whose
effects would be 500 times greater than that of the atomic bomb. The
hydrogen bomb would generate heat five times greater than the heat created
by the sun and there was wide speculation as to its effects. Some people
went so far as to say that it would create an atomic re-action which would
blow up the earth; others that it would create so much energy that the earth
would be pushed off its course. So we had the choice of being pushed nearer
the sun and burned up, or pushed farther away and frozen to death!
Dr.
Lewis explained how the hydrogen bomb would be a development from the
atomic bomb, and said that the United States would have to put down 500
million dollars to start; research into its manufacture. The uranium bomb
cost the price of a battleship, but the more bombs you made the less
expensive they were, and to-day the talk was of hundreds and even thousands
of bombs.
Explaining what - an atomic bomb would do, Dr. Lewis compared it with a
T.N.T. bomb. If a T.N.T. bomb did not push a wall over, the suction wave it
created threw the wall down. The push from the atomic bomb would be so
tremendous that there would be no suction. There was enough blast from an
atomic bomb to blow up the whole of Barry. Blast from a V-bomb could kill at
50 yards but blast from an atomic bomb would be lethal at 1,000 yards. A
deep dug-out gave protection from the blast.
Radiation from the atomic explosion as also lethal. The gama flash would
kill anyone directly exposed to it 1,000 yards away while the gama rays
which penetrated the body would cause changes in the blood and affect the
marrow In the bones. The rays could be kept out of deep shelters. Infra red
rays given off were very energetic. If a bomb fell at Barry Island the sand
would be fused like glass. Infra red rays would cause wood to catch alight a
mile away from the explosion. In Japan fire caused the greatest casualties.
The radioactive materials given off could not be destroyed by burning. They
would poison food. If a bomb were dropped in the sea, the splash it created
would cover ship a rni1e away with radio active water and its effect would
have to be got rid of:
Atomic
energy could be used beneficially. To-day we had a new material which could
be made into power. We had in our hands an instrument which could do good in
the field of medicine, biology, engineering and industry. At the same time
it was something with which we could destroy nations or make such an island
as ours ~ inhabitable. We could use atomic energy for power, and we could
convert it into radioactive atoms, radioactive carbons, and radioactive
materials with a detective power. If there was a fracture in an oil pipe
line, in the past costly digging operations had to be resorted to so that
it could be traced, but to-day a radio active material ...
The
rest has been lost
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