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Show Hevvsmen Argue A-Bomb Results While They Wait By WALTER A. SHEAD WNU Correspondent. (EDITOR'S NOTE: This dispatch ivas filed from the atomic bomb testing area only shortly before the first test bomb was scheduled to be dropped.) ABOARD USS APPALACHIAN-BIKINI APPALACHIAN-BIKINI ATOLL (Via Navy Radio) This reporter does not intend to delve into the scientific aspects of this atomic bomb test, leaving that to the scientific writers and the scientists sci-entists themselves: This test is primarily pri-marily a military experiment to determine de-termine how the United States navy and other armed services can figuratively figu-ratively "keep its powder dry" in the face of any future atomic warfare. war-fare. The experiments however by their very nature and the various tests which are to be made of atomic energy en-ergy will produce by-products of knowledge in the fields of biochemistry, biochem-istry, biology and medicine. Further knowledge will be gained also in the fields of radio, photography, photogra-phy, geology, fish life and all the sciences which apply to ocean life. Many Conjectures. A tour of this ship and a visit to the staterooms where the newspaper newspa-per men are housed conjectures on the outcome of this bomb test measured meas-ured only by the number of newspaper news-paper men aboard. This is almost true of the scientific writers themselves, them-selves, for most all have different viewpoints on the possible developments. develop-ments. These conjectures run the gamut of total destruction by tidal wave or earthquake of the entire task force in the vicinity of the bomb down to the theory that the bomb might even prove a dud forecasts of the destruc tion of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki made by the scientists connected with Uncle Sam's military establish- ments were fairly accurate and this j reporter is willing to discard the ' J more fantastic conjectures and l string along with some of these more conservative forecasts, j Earthquake or Tidal Wave? i In the first place Bikini lagoon, where the bomb will be dropped, is roughly 25 miles long and 10 miles wide and the water averages 100 feet in depth and one scientist likened lik-ened the dropping of the bomb into such an expanse of water and air to a spark from a welder's torch dropped into a 30-acre lake. Scientists Scien-tists admit that the bomb may cause a slight earthquake and tidal wave but that in comparison with nature's earthquakes it will have no destructive violence and will only be recorded upon seismographic in- HAWAII GUAM LONELY REEF ... Far out in the Pacific. Bikini atoll holds the 97 ships of the "suicide fleet." struments. The release of atomic energy at the given point of the bomb burst will in the opinion of these scientists release heat and energy en-ergy at that spot of a nature never before experienced upon the surface of the earth but its effects will be confined to a relatively very small area. One scientist declared that the radio activity released from the bomb, if absorbed by living tissues would result in chemical changes in the proteins of the tissues, in some cases of sufficient intensity to kill the tissues and in other cases likely like-ly to produce a new kind of livine tissue or a new variety of organ It " a well-known fact that X-rays hvL Tated ftis Phenomenon m ving tissues and the radio-active rays from the bomb are practically the same as X-rays. Thus a man 7aLTTS " CntaCt thse radio-active particles may well be- chTnpJ f6 .S be comically On Z t,ther charaeteristics predict r and' Sme SCientists result nfari fend0US tida wave " along the slope of Bikini atoll which nse. some 14,000 feet from the floor f the ocean. Another predicts the bomb will crack open the ocean floor and let the water into Z mo te n matter beneath te fl r plo bnmTVremendOUS V0,canic - heSe Pactions, however, howev-er, are generally discounted. Are Sworn to Secrecy. acr:nTo,reatntiCtiPatCS P of when mA P I ? ' Write au B-29oterthn " by the the press i3y mcmb"s of will no kn 'S' however. that we wh , nB:t;or e be told ed at fun em'- Se bmbs cPl0"-"t cPl0"-"t in act H "Cy r Whcth" or 'act they were duds. |