This day in history - August 5

[seamusTX]

1861 - The federal government levied an income tax for the first time, to finance the Civil War. The maximum rate was 5% on personal income over $10,000.

1884 - The cornerstone of the base of the Statue of Liberty was laid.

1914 - The first traffic light began operating in Cleveland, Ohio. It was manually operated by a police officer.

1963 - The U.S., The U.K., and the USSR signed a limited nuclear test ban treaty.

Nearly two decades of open-air nuclear explosions had measurably increased the level of radioactive isotopes all over the world.

- Jim

[ELB]

When I was still in service, I once ran into a retired officer who was one of the group of Air Force officers who stood directly under the airburst of a Genie air-to-air nuclear rocket that was intended to break up Soviet bomber formations. The warhead was detonated about 15,000 feet over their heads. They stood under it in the open desert to prove there would be no effect on civilians on the ground. The date of that test was 19 Jul 57, so I guess I missed the correct "This Day in History," but it just came to mind tonight, when I read this one.

This guy was also a pilot, and as part of the testing of early air-to-air missiles, he flew an F-106 in tests where he was chased by actual missiles fired at his aircraft. The missiles had inert warheads, but even so running one of those into an airplane would be bad news. The F-106 was very fast, and basically he had to fly like a madman and stay out of the way until the missile ran out of fuel.

They did things a little differently in those days...

[seamusTX]

Nobody seemed to have a clue about the long-term effects of radiation in those days, despite what happened to Marie Curie and the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs.

- Jim

[DoubleJ]

In my RadioBiology class, I learned that a considerable amount of what we now know about the effects of radiation is due to the Hiroshima/Nagasaki victims, and those of Chernobyl.
and the Radium Dial Painters (watches used to use Radium to light up their faces in the dark, and the painters would lick the tip of their paintbrush to keep it pointed, thus ingesting Radium).

they used to x-ray someones appendage (typically a hand or foot) until the skin turned red. that's how they "knew" it was enough radiation for an exposure. X-ray exposures have come down a little since then

It's funny to me (not in the ha ha way, though) how we had to learn about the effects of these things. took such a considerable tragedy to glean some knowledge about how radiation affects the body. Back in the 50's, they really DID think if you couldn't see the immediate effect of something, there must not be one!
radiation's a funny thing...

[seamusTX]

There's a long history of "miracle" techniques or substances that later turn out to have harmful long-term effects. When I was a kid, we had loose asbestos fiber insulation in the attic. I hope I didn't play up there too much.

Like heavy metals, antibiotics, DDT, ...

- Jim

[DoubleJ]

I remember reading about kids with enlarged Thymus glands getting irradiated to shrink the organ. too bad all that radiation caused leukemia!

I wonder what we'll figure out in the next 50 years...