Interesting Tidbits from The Past of Nuclear Energy

[MineralMan]

Since I was born just over a week before the Hiroshima attack, I'm a nuclear kid from the get-go. I was part of the group of kids in Southern California who grew up diving under our desks during A-Bomb Drills. I lived just about 10 miles from the Santa Susana reactor that melted down in 1959. A year earlier, my junior high science club took a field trip to that reactor and stood next to the unshielded core and looked down at it. My father built a fallout shelter under our house in 1960. I had a fascination for all things radioactive. Here are some fun images:




In 1960, I built a geiger counter from the plans in this 1955 issue of Popular Mechanics. I ordered the Geiger Muller tube from Allied Electronics. Cool beans.



I sent to the Atomic Energy Commission for this book, and wandered around the desert in Arizona, near my grandparents' home, with my geiger counter, searching for valuable uranium ore. Found some, too, but not enough to be commercial.



My parents bought me one of these, and I did all the experiments.

Then I got a girlfriend. So much for radioactivity. Hormonalactivity won the day! :rofl:

[RC]

1. But,... but..., but...,

With all that radioactivity, you didn't grow a third eye or have six fingers on each hand or somethin'?

[MineralMan]

4. No, but I think it made some of my parts bigger.

You just never know what radioactivity will do to a guy. :rofl:

[Junkdrawer]

2. Dagwood Splits the Atom....

http://www.sparehed.com/2007/05/14/dagwood-splits-the-atom/

[MineralMan]

3. A copy of that came with the Gilbert Experiment Set

My dad read it. He wasn't impressed. Both of my parents, though, were impressed that I did all 150 experiments.

They weren't concerned with the radioactive materials in the set.