Word: teller
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...gradually moved up from office boy to paying teller, convinced Wells Fargo that he was the smart lad he seemed by catching a forger his first day on the new job. When his mother remarried, he moved into a house with twelve other young fellows, picked up the nickname "Pat." He never had much time for fun, but he distinguished himself one day by pouring a bottle of ink into the tub as one of his fellow roomers was taking a bath in preparation for his wedding. Toward the end of World War I, Pat enlisted. The war ended before...
Atomic fission, says Dr. Teller, is still in its infancy, of course: "Actually it is quite unsound to limit our attention to atomic bombs of the present type. These bombs are the results of first attempts, and they were developed under wartime pressure. ... In a subject as new as atomic power, we must be prepared for startling developments. . . . Future bombs may easily surpass those used in the last war by a factor of a thousand...
...improved bomb, one thousand times as powerful as the "Model T" used at Nagasaki, might atomize an area of three or four hundred square miles (roughly the area of New York City). But Dr. Teller is not convinced that such direct use would be the most profitable...
...radioactivity produced by the Bikini bombs," Dr. Teller points out, "was detected within about one week in the United States. It was weak, com pletely harmless. . . . But there is a threshold beyond which radioactivity has lethal effects. . . . Sufficiently strong radio activity will kill all living tissue...
...careless atomic aggressor, Professor Teller admits, might outsmart himself by poisoning the atmosphere too strongly: the radioactive wind might sweep around the world and irradiate his own nation. But even this obstacle is not insuperable: "Different radioactive products have different rates of decay. The attacker is therefore in a position to choose the radioactive products best suited to his attack. With the proper choice, he could ensure that his victim would be seriously damaged by them, and that they would have decayed by the time they reached his own country...