"Mike" Device is Tested [Ivy Mike @ 70 -- November 1st, 1952]

Atomic Archive ^

[Ezekiel]

"Mike" Device is Tested

The first fusion bomb was tested by the United States in Operation Ivy on November 1, 1952, on Elugelab Island in the Enewatak Atoll of the Marshall Islands.

Scientists had to work faster and harder in order the meet the short deadline to complete the weapon, but their work paid off when "Mike" was successfully completed on the target date.

"Mike" used the Teller-Ulam configuration, liquid deuterium as its fusion fuel and a large fission weapon as its trigger. The device was strictly an experimental, prototype design and not a deliverable weapon: standing over 20 ft. high and weighing at least 140,000 lbs., with an additional 24,000 lbs. from its refrigeration equipment, it could not have been dropped from even the largest planes.

Its explosion yielded 10.4 megatons of energy-over 450 times the power of the bomb dropped onto Nagasaki-and obliterated Elugelab...

[ClearCase_guy]

My father was out there and had the privilege of seeing Castle Bravo in 1954. I don’t know for sure if he saw Mike. Bravo was much bigger than expected. Oops. My father died of cancer, but it was many years later.

[Red Badger]

https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

[basalt]

the video of shot “Bravo” is just stunning....looks like just pure fireball...geez.

[ClearCase_guy]

That’s kind of awesome. I’m pretty remote so I’m guessing I’d survive a strike at least for awhile. But perhaps a Tsar Bomba would get me quick.

[Red Badger]

You’re either instantaneously vaporized or you die a lingering death from radiation poisoning or your die from cancer years later. No one ‘survives’ a nuclear war....................

[Ezekiel]

Funny! I wondered why the default wasn't D.C.

Drag the marker to wherever you'd like to target.<<<

Ahh,

Or you can select a preset...

Where D.C. is the first choice. 😆

[Ezekiel]

Thanks for your story. I hope your father lived a good and productive long life.

So many inadvertent unknowns in those days.

[Myrddin]

One of my co-workers, Mark Watson, had the privilege of growing up in a home where Edward Teller was a frequent dinner guest. Mark is a pretty bright guy. He has written many CS books. I'm staying current with his LISP book.

[Paleo Conservative]

The lithium deuteride dry bomb turned out to be much more efficient than predicted by computer models. There was no need to test either the deliverable liquid deuterium bomb nor the designed dry 10 megaton bomb. Considering the 5 megaton dry bomb actually delivered about 15 megatons, the nominal 10 megaton design could probably have delivered 30 maybe more.

[GaltAdonis]

[powerset]

Back in the late 80’s when I was at IBM Research, there was an IBM Fellow (Richard Garwin, a physicist) down the hall from me whom I talked to once or twice. I found out much later that he had been the person tasked by Teller to do the engineering design for the “Mike” device.

(In another “found out later” case, it turned out that the person down the hall from my first office there in 1970, Robert Dennard, had been the inventor, in 1966, of the first practical DRAM.)

[Antoninus II]

My Dad was there. How do I post a picture?

[Rockingham]

The fission-fusion method that was proved to work in the "Mike" test remains fundamental to H bomb design, with the hydrogen put into a stable compound form to save enough weight and space to make such bombs practical and deliverable as weapons. In addition, "Mike" spurred the career of its designer and advocate, conservative Hungarian emigre Edward Teller, against the leftist Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the Manhattan Project, who had opposed the development of the H Bomb.

[Ezekiel]

My Dad was there.

Amazing history to behold. What'd he say about it?

How do I post a picture?

You'd have to upload it first to an image hosting site.

I haven't done that in many years so I don't know which ones are good anymore.

[Ezekiel]

I suspect that the event falls under, “the picture doesn’t do it justice.”

[Ezekiel]

I enjoy reading the “who would ever think?” type stories.

Thanx!

[minnesota_bound]

#15 How to Post images and Web links at FreeRepublic
http://davidswebsite.com/html_basics/htmlbasics.html