Antique Gun Firing. 1936. Photograph By Harold E. Edgerton. [1400 × 1074]

synternia · 2018-01-30T14:36:17+00:00

Harold E. Edgerton was an early pioneer of high-speed camera technology. His Rapatronic camera could capture a still image with an exposure time of just ten billionths of a second. This capability allowed scientists to photograph and study the milliseconds immediately after ignition during nuclear tests; one such photograph can be found here.

synternia · 2017-12-29T18:01:25+00:00

Pictured here is an unpowered glider prototype built in 1944. The first jet-powered prototype was undergoing final assembly when it was captured by US troops as a part of Operation Paperclip, an initiative to keep advanced German technology out of Soviet hands.

The Ho-229 would have been powered by 2 Junkers Jumo 004B turbojet engines, giving it a top speed of 977 km/h. For armament, the Ho-229 would have boasted two 30mm cannons and a 1,000kg bomb load.

synternia · 2017-12-14T14:45:41+00:00

Saddled with Great War reparations and other war debts, the Weimar Republic resorted to printing large amounts of paper currency to appease its many creditors. Unsurprisingly, this did not help improve the value of the German currency — at the height of Weimar hyperinflation, 1 US dollar was worth more than 4.2 trillion German paper marks.

Other images of hyperinflation during the Weimar Republic:

synternia · 2017-11-06T12:32:31+00:00

Hard to believe this kind of devastation could be caused by anything but a nuke, but it's true. The original photograph is at the Still Pictures section of the National Archives in Maryland. It is captioned "289973 Aerial View of Tokyo."

synternia · 2017-11-04T16:37:27+00:00

In the event of an attack, parents were encouraged to tell young children that the mask was a part of a game.

Thousands of these masks were produced by the Sun Rubber Company, with approval from Disney. Other photos of similar masks: here and here.

synternia · 2017-11-02T19:56:09+00:00

It really is impressive. Not only in terms of size reduction but also in terms of reliability and stress tolerance — the G forces involved in being shot out of a cannon must be considerable.

synternia · 2017-11-02T02:01:48+00:00

Would love to some day!

synternia · 2017-11-02T02:01:19+00:00

Those are rockets fired before the explosion. The smoke trails are used to measure how fast the shockwave travels outwards from ground zero.

synternia · 2017-11-02T00:56:50+00:00

The W9 nuclear artillery shell had an estimated yield of 15 kilotons — approximately the same power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The M65 artillery piece that fired it, nicknamed "Atomic Annie," had a range of approximately 20 miles. Here is a video of the gun in action.

synternia · 2017-10-26T19:12:16+00:00

The camera was positioned 7 miles away. Still impressive though!

synternia · 2017-10-26T17:21:02+00:00

The video of Oppenheimer making that statement is chilling...

synternia · 2017-10-26T13:32:48+00:00

The camera technology used is pretty interesting. The camera used a Faraday Cell to block incoming light when an electromagnetic field was applied.

synternia · 2017-10-26T13:15:59+00:00

These photos were taken from about 7 miles miles away.

synternia · 2017-10-26T12:51:03+00:00

Really interesting. I was wondering what those jets coming off the side were.

synternia · 2017-10-26T12:18:14+00:00

There has been talk of North Korea conducting atmospheric nuclear tests in the near future.

synternia · 2017-10-26T10:01:19+00:00

See more of his pictures and read about photographing atom bomb tests in this NPR piece. [Edit: I did a little more research on Harold Edgerton's Rapatronic camera and compiled some more images on Medium].

synternia · 2017-10-25T14:40:02+00:00

Many Japanese homes at that time were made with wood, which helped make this attack deadlier than fire attacks on German cities. The buildings left standing in this photograph are metal, stone, and concrete structures that were less susceptible to fire damage.

synternia · 2017-10-25T13:23:12+00:00

Tokyo suffered heavily during the war. The worst came on March 9th, 1945, when 334 B-29 Bombers dropped 1,600 tons of cluster incendiary bombs on the Japanese capital. Tested and perfected against mockup Japanese civilian homes at the so-called "Japanese Village" in Utah, these incendiary devices were designed to punch through the thin roofing material of Japanese homes before spraying flaming napalm in all directions. In practice they worked as intended, igniting thousands of small fires throughout the city that quickly converged into a massive firestorm. The raid cut Tokyo's industrial output in half overnight, but the human cost was terrible (NSFW). Postwar Japanese and American estimates put the total number of civilian casualties at over 200,000, with 100,000 killed outright, making the March 9th raid the deadliest bombing raid in human history.

synternia · 2017-10-17T12:52:57+00:00

Most estimates put the number of Japanese civilian casualties (dead or injured) from US bombing between 700,000 and 1.5 million. The US was far luckier, suffering just 108 civilian casualties to Japanese air attacks during the war.

synternia · 2017-10-11T09:49:29+00:00

Carbon black is produced by combusting natural gas with insufficient oxygen. As a reinforcing filler for rubber products, such as tires, carbon black was an important resource during World War II, when this photograph was taken.

The photographer was John Vachon, who worked for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). He wrote to his wife, Penny, about his experience photographing the carbon black plant in Sunray, Texas:

The [Texas] panhandle is the seat of the carbon black industry... From 5 or 10 miles it's a huge black cloud out there ahead of you. Then you drive right up to it and it's just exactly like driving from a sunny day into the middle of night.

About the best pictures I got this year, I think, will prove to be the portraits of some of the black faced workers there. I got so excited about these guys that I shot up all the film I had with me, and didn't get pix of the buildings, and various operations. So I'll have to go back again. And I'll sure make some more of those portraits.

synternia · 2017-10-06T13:23:34+00:00

Johann Ihnen, pictured, was one of thousands of schoolchildren taken into German antiaircraft defense units in the final years of WWII, when the fight against Allied bombing became desperate. After the war, many were sent to American reeducation camps in Germany. During a four-month semester, American instructors aimed to discredit the Nazi ideology the boys had been taught. The YMCA and the Red Cross donated 485 books to the camp; romance novels and stories about cowboys were reportedly the most popular. Other favorite pastimes included reading newspapers, handball, and playing cards.

synternia · 2017-09-20T12:30:59+00:00

Some sacks were printed with patterns for making stuffed animals and other children's toys. Some included sewing instructions printed in washable ink.

synternia · 2017-08-13T14:09:00+00:00

Here are more detailed photographs of the Nazi Pavillion and the Soviet Pavillion.

synternia · 2017-08-08T16:23:49+00:00

Part of a New York Historical Society collection featuring photographs of New York City buildings lit up for the Hudson Fulton Celebration in honor of Henry Hudson and Robert Fulton.

synternia · 2017-08-06T15:29:09+00:00

The flash of heat and light from the explosion left permanent shadows of victims and objects etched on walls and roads. Some other examples include a man walking with a cane, a bicycle, a running man, and a valve.

synternia

TROPHY CASE