johnson teller (2 Ergebnisse)

Zustand: VG. 1955. Article at pp. 783-787 in single complete issue of The Physical Revew. May 1, 1955 vol 98, no. 3. Included in a complete issue of this journal with many other articles. 4to., original printed wraps. "Oppenheim, A" stamped on front. VG+).

First edition, first printing, signed by the authors and inscribed by Johnson, "To Bill Bascom - With thanks and appreciation for your long-standing interest in and support of the Plowshare Program. Jerry Johnson, Washington D.C., August 3, 1968." This is the first technical monograph on the peaceful applications of nuclear explosions as developed by Project Plowshare. This work was a collaborative effort between several distinguished physicists led by Edward Teller (1908-2003), the "father of the hydrogen bomb". Gerald W. Johnson (1917-2005) served as director of Project Plowshare; this was the United States's attempt to develop techniques using nuclear energy for industry and construction between 1957-77. Wilson K. Talley (1935-2017) was a nuclear engineer who served as a science advisor to the Department of Defense and Presidents Ford and Reagan. Gary H. Higgins (1927-2002) was a radiochemist who served as Division Leader of Plowshare. The recipient of this copy was the engineer Willard Bascom (1916-2000). Bascom was the director of Project Mohole, an attempt between 1961-66 to drill through the Earth's crust to obtain samples of the Mohorovi i discontinuity. Bascom served as President of the Plowshare Advisory Committee and conducted research on wave behaviour in the detonation of nuclear weapons in the South Pacific. Although supportive of the project, he was opposed to Project Chariot, the proposition to construct an artificial harbour at Cape Thompson in Alaska (Ogle, p. 170). Project Chariot was championed by Teller, but never came to fruition due to concerns about the effect on the local environment and community. The Constructive Uses of Nuclear Explosives offers a guide to the technical activities of the programme, focussing predominantly on excavation and mining but also on other engineering and scientific potentialities such as geophysical research and petroleum production. The project had a particular application to canals; due to the Suez Crisis of 1956, the potential of constructing an alternative canal through friendly territory was discussed by scientists at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, California on the instruction of President Eisenhower. Although the alternative canal was never built, the proposition of using nuclear energy for peaceful construction purposes raised at the meeting led to the formation of Project Plowshare. Along with offering technical details, this work refers to the "emotional problem" of the project: "The first use of nuclear explosives, in war, displayed their destructive potential, and this characteristic still captures the imagination. That there may be resistance to their use for constructive purposes is consequently not surprising" (p. v). The reframing of nuclear weapons was a key concern for the US Government; in his farewell address of 1961, President Eisenhower expressed his hope that "American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well", and in 1987 President Reagan famously asked the United Nations General Assembly "cannot swords be turned to plowshares?" William E. Ogle, An Account of the Return to Nuclear Weapons Testing by the United States After the Test Moratorium 1958-1961, 1985. Octavo. Original grey cloth, spine and covers lettered in green and black. With dust jacket. Numerous photographs, diagrams, and charts within text. Spine ends slightly bruised, cloth extremities and edges foxed, faint browning to endpapers, contents clean; jacket foxed, extremities nicked, spine panel a little faded, unclipped: a very good copy in very good jacket.