Chicago Pile-1: The Day Tomorrow Began
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- Опубликовано: 20 окт 2024
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My stepfather, George W. Tressel, made this film for Argonne for the 25 anniversary of CP-1. He had some amazing stories about the making of the film - one of which was how he obtained the only color film of the Hiroshima explosion.
Months had passed since they put out a national call for any photos, drawings or other artifacts from the early atomic age. One day they get a call from the guard desk saying someone is claiming to have color film of the explosion. Well, the crew at first dismissed this claim because one, color film was still new at the time and exceedingly expensive - very few people could afford it. Two, they knew there was no film of the explosion because of a technical problem with the official camera. But then they asked the guard for the name of the person and got back, “something Agnew.” Indeed, it was the Harold Agnew and they fell all over themselves racing to get downstairs.
Agnew flew on the support plane, the “Great Artiste.” But unbeknownst to anyone, he smuggled aboard his own personal movie camera. And of course, being one of the heads of the project he had access to color film. Gen. Groves was furious to learn Agnew had taken film without permission and confiscated the film. After much discussion Groves allowed Agnew to have a copy. Somewhere along the way the original was lost but Agnew still had his copy and provided it to George.
Another important story about this film: around the 28th minute is the long, steady tilting shot of the mushroom cloud. But how did they take such a steady shot? They didn’t. Remember, this film was taken from a handheld camera on a propeller-driven airplane racing away from the scene. “Steadicam” wouldn’t be invented for decades yet; Agnew’s footage was shakier than the Blair Witch Project.
All the way back to his days at experimental TV station WBKB (Chicago) George was inventing cutting-edge camera and production equipment. To create that modern Hollywood “Steadicam” shot George invented and built the equipment to manually adjust the position of the film frame-by-frame and re-photograph it into what you see now.
Sadly, George passed away at his home in Silver Spring, MD, at the age of 93 on November 17, 2019.
George had many, many other accomplishments that have touched untold millions of people’s lives such as creating the very first “news ticker/crawl” for television and being the driving force in bringing closed-captioning to TV and film for the hearing impaired.
We miss him dearly already.
EDITED TO ADD (Jan 2021):
I should have included this in my original comment:
@/uchicagoarts @UChicago posted this video. In a nice coincidence, George was a Hutchins Scholar at Chicago (enrolled in 1940 at age 14; earned two degrees (one in physics) by 1945) while Fermi and crew worked on CP-1.
He loved to recall the story of how he and his friends used to play squash on the courts under the stadium a couple of times a week. One day he went to play but when he opened the door a soldier holding a rifle blocked his way and demanded to know where he was going. "I am going to play squash," he said. "No you are not," said the soldier. "Why not?" he asked. "There are no squash courts here." "Of course there are, I played here two days ago," replied George. "There are no squash courts here," repeated the soldier while bringing his rifle up to port arms. "Yes, there are," insisted George. "No, there are not," said the soldier as he began to point the business end of the rifle directly at George. George told us he got the message and walked away.
Who could have guessed that 25 years later he would be directing and producing the film to commemorate the reason why he couldn't play squash there anymore?
Great input Mike! Truly fascinating all this is. Its sad that so many speak ill of the project. I read Richard Rhodes "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" a year or two ago, one of the most fascinating stories I have ever heard. Now anything I can eat up on this topic I do. Further proof that the most incredible stories are the true ones!
@@mcdol13 Thanks for the kind words, glad you found the video. If you haven't already, be sure to read "Doomsday Machine" by Daniel Ellsberg.
That is an incredible story!! Yes Harold Agnew did film the Hiroshima blast. I knew he had a color Nagasaki but not Hiroshima. He is in a photograph carrying the core of the Fatman bomb- looks like that guy that helped Marlin Perkins on Wild Kingdom! Lol. Thanks for this.
Amazing story, to be preserved
This is a one of a million comment, worth to read.
Exactly these are the things i am looking for in the comment section.
Pure Gold.
Thanks a lot for sharing your memory's with us !
R.I.P. Mr. Tressel and greets from Gernany.
I love the description of a bare chested and dust-covered Enrico Fermi pushing graphite blocks by hand. This man had an entire class of particles named after him, as well as numerous other scientific laws and effects. Here he is doing manual labour in order to help the project of his lifetime succeed.
Back when leaders got their hands dirty rather than just give orders.
@@mr.pavone9719 Back when computers didn't do all the work for the physicists, they definitely had to get their hands dirty sometimes!
You didn't see graphite! You didn't!
Fermi was extremely unique in his time for being as much a hands-on experimentalist as theorist. If anything, more physicists straddle experiment and theory these days, and many are even talented engineers as well. For instance, I will fabricate bespoke laboratory and test equipment myself rather than outsource it.
Like if you are from The Bear
I love these documentaries. Reminds of tv on saturday or sunday morning around 6am.lol
I've heard a story that the head of the Carbon Company discreetly tried to ask how they're going to make diamonds. That's because the graphite had to be so pure that he could imagine no other use for it. In reality the purity was necessary to make sure that graphite doesn't have neutron absorbing materials that would prevent the chain reaction.
Nice documentary...together wd the other docs iv'e read about manhatan project it is interesting to know snd understand how atomic bomb was developed..those jewish scientist were realy geniousl ...
Fermi tested carbon as a neutron moderator in the U.S.. Heisenberg tested carbon as a neutron moderator in Germany. Fermi based his choice of carbon on his calculations, and determined after experiment using carbon as a moderator that there was some impurity in the carbon absorbing neutrons, not just slowing them down. He eventually determined that it was boron, less than 1%, but enough to poison his natural uranium reactor... So he went looking at nuclear grade carbon. -- Heisenberg also tested carbon and determined it was not suitable for a reactor, but his math was not good enough to tell him that it was most likely an impurity and not the carbon itself... So the German nuclear fission technology started with heavy water... As late as 1947 Heisenberg believed that carbon could not be used because it absorbed too many neutrons.
What a gem of a production! To see some of those I admire and owe much thanks for providing a foundation for eventual commercialization of the atomic energy of which has provided for many financial as well as educational benefits along with great green energy.
What a great piece of work, I love how passionate they were and how much fun they seemed to be having, this is going straight on my nuclear playlist.
After watching again, I feel the need to acknowledge Leona Libbys` contribution to the creation of the first neutron counter not mentioned in this fine film.
Should be a statue of her in Hiroshima
My dad, who was the last remaining person who was present when Fermi created the first self sustaining nuclear chain reaction, was present when Fermi split the atom. My dad was 94. This was the beginning of the nuclear age. My dad was just 17 and out of Tilden Tech highshool. Was a gofer, collected the uranium, and aided Enrico Fermi. What they did might have helped save the world. It sure put a damper on Japan, after they figured how to make the bomb, but if it wasn't for this group, Los Alimos might not have happened.
*Nobody has **_ever_** "split" the atom, **_nor_** **_can_** anybody "split" an atom! The neutrons within the U-235 atoms are automatically being released **_from_** the U-235 atom, as this particular atom is extremely radioactive! There is no manual or otherwise of "splitting" **_anything!_*
@@kingknowledge1977 And when the atoms nucleus is split....
@@kingknowledge1977
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This channel is highly dedicated to the hyper-education of the CORRECT knowledge
@@kingknowledge1977 is the pedant in this comment section.
@King Knowledge you must be a real killjoy at parties.
Great historical record of excellent color film quality from a time when some of the main actors were still young enough to speak in a lively way about the events of the project era. Guessing this is from the late 60s since there appears to be a shot of a completed San Onofre power plant near the end.
Man the safty regulations in those days are fantastic , a guy can realy get some work done under these conditions 12:11
Truly remarkable people and a stunning development project. Dark times and a dark goal but what an amazing achievement from a team we may never see the like of again. Only the Gemini/Apollo program comes close in sheer brilliance in my humble opinion. Both arguably driven by military necessity of course.
Amazing documentary. I wish they had photographs/film of the building process. Maybe because of the secrecy and possible espionage nothing was taken. Only sketches and paintings.
Fun Fact: If you look up "Radioactive Boy Scout" or David Hahn. You would be surprised how similar his reactor was from CP-1 except for scale.
After discovering the CP-1 and Site A markers in the preserve I bike ride at; I've always wondered what the people working there looked like, how did the are look. This is pretty cool.
"We just created the first man-made self-sustaining nuclear reaction in history"
"Right. Who needs a drink?"
I wish there was more history about the “metallurgy labs” in the woods near maple lake where the cp reactor and fuel are buried.
They reused most of the carbon and practically all of the uranium from the Chicago pile. It was disassembled and the components went directly into other reactors. It was not very radioactive at all, the pile had no cooling system, and was only powered up to one or two watts of output for short periods of time. This pile used natural uranium fuel, enrichment had not been developed yet. All of the uranium was reused in the production of plutonium.
Спасибо за историческую кинохронику!
I wish someone would translate this comment.
“Thank you for the historical newsreel”
The Industrial Art of Atomic Energy
Lol. The place was like a giant Etch-A-Sketch.
Fermi was the man.
The Bush family resemblance is strong.
Dr. Libby, muttered something @26:47. 0_o? A side note. Could you imagine how many test samples she gathered during that stressful development period? During that era.
Plutonium: how to turn lead into gold...
I wonder how good it is to be breathing in graphite powder?
Yeah that was my question…😕
28:45 the optimism of the closing remarks documents the state of society at that time
the atomic this and nuclear that was all the rage from comics to wallpaper
Note that, even at this early time, "energy" is already identified as the key supply to wellbeing. With enough energy even the desert can bloom into flowers, without it even the most fertile land goes untilled.
How best to control these piles? Preparation H.
16:02
The Ames Process (developed at Iowa State University)
This was standard Uranium and Uranium Oxide? If so, had large quantities of these materials never been collected together before, say in a warehouse or where these guys stored it? If not, how had it previously emerged that large quantities of Uranium shouldn't be placed together?
Fermi designed the pile mathematically. He knew from the math that too much material in a small space could create fission reactions, from the math. It's the same math he used to calculate bomb critical masses. Once you know the math, and the variables, you can come very close to actual experimental test results. We are humans, the math is complex, and so testing was required to make sure that things like warheads and reactor piles actually performed as predicted.
Wicked! Drop da bomb!
ONLY Dr.Greenwalt a physicist from Du Pont working on such a project could get away with speaking in such a manor with that rich , white bred accect , wow !!!!.......what times they were !!!!.............................. Erik
I can see graphite on the floor :) Actually this pile was quite the size of RBMK
To bad nobody looked past ending the war
@MichaelKingsfordGray what?
Who?
BTW-Bigger or "better" bombs don't end wars, people do. And, dear God with Your help, we the people can--and must--end this delusion, wake up from this captivity to "death, the destroyer of worlds" (Oppenheimer), and commit our time, talent, and treasure to the ways of peace, the welfare of our children, and the future of our planet.
13:11 ............
fermi
8:01 spoken like a true American! Only one thing on his mind; power and destruction!
up to 1:54, sensationalism. @3:54 scary Nazi images... and then science. @27:14 the world has changed and a genteel sip for all... I admire these men and respect the ethical sacrifices they made The bomb was necessary and perhaps a fair response to Japan's perfidy.
Don't be too hard on Japan. I strongly suspect that in their place we would have done the same thing.
@Karlbert Karol Secretary of War, Henry Stimson assigned a panel consisting of Robert Oppenheimer, Earnest Lawrence, Enrico Fermi, and Arthur Compton the task of devising a credible demonstration of the atomic bomb that would convince the Japanese to surrender. After working on the problem for a weekend, the group sent Stimson the message, “We can propose no technical demonstration likely to bring an end to the war; we see no acceptable alternative to direct military use.” But, then you're probably smarter than three Nobel laureates and Oppenheimer and could easily figure out a way to demonstrate the atomic bomb...right?
Don't forget chosen people at 4:04, they single single-handedly split the first atom you know (don't research this as people didn't have google when this film was made and that wouldn't be fair)
Sorry but , the "the Birthplace" of Atomic Energy lays in Germany.
False 🤣
@@whirledpeas3477he means the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 by Otto Hahn in Berlin.
But yes, the bomb was the product of many advances in science by many people, no need to pick only one event in particular.
@JulianWhere please visit the planet where you where discovered?
*WOW!!! If **_only_** they could predict what would happen approximately only 20 years in the future within the city of Chernobyl, I'm **_sure_** they wouldn't be so highly-praising of the "atomic age"!!!*
ya
I think you would enjoy reading more on this topic. Many of what are viewed by most people as "facts" about he safety of nuclear power are wrong. In fact, Richard Rhodes who began writing about the perils of nuclear power ended up being a support of it after years of research. A good piece and a quick read can be found here: www.nci.org/conf/rhodes/. There are many others. If after doing research you still have a negative view of nuclear power, I can respect that, as an informed opinion is a respectable one.
it was pressurized and didnt have a containment building. also its a different kind of reactor. there are other kinds.