MIT Museum

Major collection: Science & Technology
Named collection: Harold E. Edgerton Collection
Object type: negative
Maker: Edgerton, Harold Eugene
Date made: 1952 (circa)
Materials: safety film
Measurements: 8x10"

Atomic bomb explosion at the Nevada Proving Grounds, photographed by Edgerton and his colleagues at EG&G for the Atomic Energy Commission; before 1952. Revealing the incredible anatomy of the first microseconds of an atomic explosion, this ominous fireball was documented in a 1/100,000,000-of-a-second exposure, taken from seven miles away with a lens ten feet long. The intense heat vaporized the steel tower and turned the desert sand to glass. (from "Stopping TIme" (1987), pp. 144-5). (CC)

HEE-NC-52004