r/oddlyterrifying • u/bubbleweed • 15d ago

A 1950s atomic test 'shot cab' glowing through the solid walls before it engulfed the structure.

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6.7k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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1.5k

u/Basbriz 15d ago

Interesting to think that for the breifest of moments, all that energy was contained inside a sheet metal shed.

738

u/actually3racoons 15d ago

Contained might be a bit generous. The energy density is wild though, for a moment, that shed was a very exciting interior.

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u/Basbriz 14d ago

Totally. Not contained in the truest sense of the word. I just meant that the almost incomprehensibly massive amount of potential energy had yet to destroy the rather flimsy structure.

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u/DeakonDuctor 14d ago

Reading this high made me feel like I'm a wizard.

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u/actually3racoons 14d ago

Its pretty nuts how much destructive energy was in there. Nearly enough joules of energy to power the u.s. (current day) for a day.

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u/dangerousperson123 14d ago

Holy shit 🤯

1

u/Stiiiiin 12d ago

Literally hotter than a star

98

u/bubbleweed 14d ago

All that energy was contained in the small plutonium sphere sitting probably on some table before it was inserted into the center of the bomb casing. All it took was to squish the plutonium ball a bit to make it dense enough that random particles flying off the plutonium atoms would be more and more likely to collide with another atom’s nucleus. It’s crazy when you boil it down, the entire device is to increase a probability of a collision of particles.

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u/camdalfthegreat 14d ago

I feel like your skipping out the fact that, that plutonium their using is in an incredibly hard complicated process to manufacture. Which is a good thing because it means the world can more easily monitor the production of nuclear material.

You also need a fairly specialized explosive device to compress said plutonium. Not quite just "squishing" it

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u/ThePrideOfKrakow 14d ago

Pretty sure if I clap my cheeks hard enough, it'd go off.

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u/welcomefinside 14d ago

Do you have a slow motion video of that for research though?

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u/RedditYeti 14d ago

GoFundMe when?

1

u/Scary_Childhood5155 6d ago

I literally love Reddit sometimes

17

u/YogurtclosetThen7959 15d ago

That's kinda contrary to the photo thou

270

u/goodboi87 15d ago

But wait is this infrared or visible light we are talking about?

Infrared is something I can comprehend, like the cabin will have got hot before shattering but did we see visible light go through something that is opaque?

250

u/bubbleweed 15d ago

I believe these were indeed visible light cameras, the amount of light emitted by an atomic bomb in all wavelengths is truly hard to comprehend.

171

u/TheSillyGhillie 14d ago

I remember hearing a WW2 Navy sailor talk about when they tested it in the ocean. They had them on deck look away and cover their eyes with their hands or tuck it into their chest. The light from the explosion was stronger than xrays and he said he could see the bones in his hands for a second. Its pretty wild to actually experience something that. This world is marvelously fascinating and terrifying.

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u/pavldan 14d ago

I saw that documentary too. A lot of British and American sailors ending up with radiation related diseases and never getting any compensation.

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u/FrizB84 14d ago

"Hey sailor, why don't you go up on deck to watch this neato new bomb we're testing."
Those sailors were used as lab rats and it's really fucked up how often shit like that occurred.

12

u/allthesemonsterkids 13d ago

How about "hey sailor, swallow this X-ray film badge on a string and fly through the cloud from an atomic detonation so we can see whether the radiation penetrates through your chest cavity"?

https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/achre/commeet/meet6/brief6/tab_f/br6f1.txt

For even more detail on similar "sampling" experiments: https://naav.com/archives/2013_10_NAAV_Newsletter.pdf

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u/-------Rotary------- 14d ago

With enough light, nothing is opaque - like when you have a really bright torch and shine it through your hand, and you can see red light shining through

308

u/TylerKasprzyk 15d ago

I don’t understand. Explain like I’m 3 please.

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u/thefluffyparrot 15d ago

This is a guess, so someone correct me if I’m wrong please. I think this is supposed to be photos of nuclear bombs in the first milliseconds where the bomb is placed inside a structure. As the explosion is just beginning the light is so intense that it shines right through the structure.

166

u/AnimationOverlord 15d ago

It’s also important to know that light is a visible spectrum to humans among the “electromagnetic light spectrum” in which X-rays and gamma rays (commonly known in nuclear bombs) are not visible but behave the same way. It’s what can cook your food and cook you.

84

u/EYRONHYDE 15d ago

I mean, yeah, it CAN cook your food, but i personally wouldn't. Especially when the MICROwave is right there and arguably much safer.

23

u/AnimationOverlord 15d ago

Oops. I meant microwaves instead of X-rays lol. But nonetheless, a nuclear bomb will emit all sorts of light.

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u/bubbleweed 15d ago

Atomic bomb tests in the 50s were often performed on top of a metal tower, they would place the bomb inside a 'shot cab', basically a shed built on top of the tower. The photo at bottom left was taken less than a millionth of a second after detonation, soon enough that the explosion has not yet escaped the shed but is bright enough to light up the solid shed like a light bulb.

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u/alexplex86 15d ago edited 14d ago

I'm kind of more impressed by their 50's technology camera being able to capture it. Meanwhile, photographs I shoot with 2025 technology get blurry and underexposed when it's slightly dark.

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u/rickane58 14d ago

If you were taking a picture of a nuclear explosion, you phone sensor would have no problem taking a nice crisp picture. They are, I cannot stress this enough, BRIGHT

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u/civicsfactor 14d ago

Eyesight however, will be of rapidly diminishing concern.

7

u/Tebrik 14d ago

increasing concern* "I can't see. I can't see? I can't see?! I CAN'T SEE OH GOD NO"

10

u/nomoreteathx 14d ago

Actually way simpler than you think. It's pretty straightforward to trigger a bunch of cameras at the same time as the bomb since it's all just electrical impulses from a detonator, the real innovation was creating a non-mechanical shutter using polarising filters, which Faraday had experimented with a hundred years earlier. That allowed them to get exposure times measured in single digit nanoseconds, several orders of magnitude faster than even a modern electronic shutter, but more than enough for this kind of photography given the truly stupendous amount of light a nuclear explosion gives off.

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u/-Samathos- 14d ago

There was a quite interesting video on the cameras for that. If I recall correctly it was more similar to 20 cameras in a circle that were rotated to fill the times one camera took to take a photo.

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u/earthfase 14d ago

You are thinking of The Matrix.

31

u/Prollynotafed 15d ago

This pic was taken the moment the nuke inside the shack went off. I assume it’s X-rays or just the insane amount of photons that were just unleashed causing the glow but basically the “light” is showing through solid walls. Physics is goddamn amazing.

15

u/SomeFunnyGuy 15d ago

Put a flashlight behind your finger. Turn it on. See it glow? So did that "home" that housed the bomb when it went off.

9

u/Z085 15d ago

Nuke inside exploded so brightly, light penetrated the walls.

1

u/TylerKasprzyk 14d ago

Thank You for the great explanations.

1

u/Ylteicc_ 14d ago

Big boom boom make light when go boom. Big boom boom in shed, go boom. Shed light up because big boom boom go boom in shed, so make light in shed.

31

u/PBandJ980 15d ago

Just watched the movie Threads recently. Always been afraid of the power of nukes but not like I am now after watching that movie. Just about the most uncomfortable thing I’ve ever watched. 10/10 👍

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u/HughJorgens 14d ago

The Love Shack is a little ol' place where, we can fuse together!

11

u/Alt_aholic 14d ago

Who ordered the sun in a box?

3

u/Bmatic 14d ago

Straight from Temu

13

u/Tuesdaynext14 14d ago

I assume the non spherical shape of the plasma is a result of the millisecond imperfections in the compression detonations?

5

u/DXBflyer 14d ago

So what actually happened to the shed?

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u/bubbleweed 14d ago

Slight damage, they repaired it and put it in Elvis's garden.

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u/Mark_fuckaborg 14d ago

Atomised.

10

u/Th3_Gh0st_0f_Y0u 14d ago

To shreds, you say?

2

u/JackOfAllMemes 14d ago

And the yard?

4

u/CoffinDanceOff 14d ago

Spicy in there

8

u/sovietdoggo12 15d ago

Imagine detonating a nuke filmed with modern slow-mo cameras at 100,000 fps

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u/sumpick 15d ago

They actually had 1 000 000fps cams as I recall

5

u/tinyadorablebabyfox 14d ago

Invented by Harold edgerton!

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u/ahooliu98 15d ago

New video idea for YouTube slow mo guys

2

u/229-northstar 14d ago

What is a shot cab?

1

u/BodineWilson 14d ago edited 14d ago

Which test series is this?

Loooks like:

Hardtack II

either : Quay, Hamilton, or Oberon?

1

u/problyurdad_ 13d ago

I remember seeing videos of the guys who were on ships around the ocean when the US tested nukes out there and those guys said with your eyes closed and hands in front of your face, they could still see the light.