 tour which was very instructive
As we passed from display to
display the woman explained
most items in reasonable detail
so that everybody in the
audience could follow her.
She had the annoying habit of
beginning some slightly techni-
cal point with a phrase like
"The men will understand this"
of "The men will be interested
in this...." until both Valma
and I were ready to stuff her
men down her throat.
Some of
the displays were models of
reactors and atomic structures
and a couple of them were
supposed to give us an idea of
various points of atomic
technology, in particular
I remember the one which
demonstrated why pinchfields
for containing atomic fusion
don't work. The guide stuck
a tube of metal foil into the
machine and asked us to
pretend it was the field in
which atomic fusion was about
to take place. Then she tried
to describe exactly what
fusion meant and the sorts of
forces involved. When she had
done she pressed a button
which pinched the ends of the
tube and simulated inside it
the forces of fusion. There
was a loud pop after which she extracted the tube and showed us that even though the
ends had been pinched very tightly they had not been able to contain the forces and
the tin foil had not been pinched tight enough to prevent the ends from being forced
open ever so slightly. The point was very effectively made. Strangely she ignored
the model of the sorts of machine which will be able to create and contain fusion,
maybe because, as Bob pointed out, the idea had been taken from the Russians.
There
were the usual geigercounters and stuff and the tour ended with a little talk from the
woman in praise of atomic power and the great and glorious future which lay ahead of
us if we put our trust in the technicians at places like Los Alamos. Fair enough but
changed the mood of the tour from one of education to one of propaganda directed at
the anti-atomic power lobby.
In the courtyard built into the middle of the museum
were models of various atomic devices, most were bombs but in one corner was a
massive thing about the size of a decent water tank, cut away in places so we could
see what was inside. The plaque attached said it was a reactor built to study the
potential of atomic power as the source of energy for flight. I could never imagine
the thing flying and obviously the people who built it had felt similarly since they
called it Kiwi. Taking pride of place seemed to be full scale models of the two
bombs to be dropped on Japan, I'd heard that they were big but I had not imagined them
to be that size. No wonder they had needed the B 29's to carry them. There were
other models of more recent bombs ranging down to one the size of a thin rubbish bin
though I imagine that the ones they are making these days for missiles are even
smaller.
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