Word: westervelt
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...when a nuclear bomb explodes in a vacuum, about half of its energy goes into invisible X rays. These hit the atmosphere and make its oxygen and nitrogen fluoresce in characteristic wave lengths that can easily be distinguished from the spectrum of sunlight. When Los Alamos Physicist Donald R. Westervelt learned about this, he designed a detection system based upon it. A few dozen of his detectors spotted around the earth would be an adequate network. Some of them would always be under clear skies. In daylight they would detect a one-megaton burst 2,000,000 miles from...
...problem still remaining is to prove that no natural phenomenon will look like a space test to Westervelt's detectors. The model at Los Alamos has already passed one test: it is not fooled by lightning. Next month it will be moved to Fairbanks, Alaska to see whether it cries a false bomb scare when a strong aurora shines in the night sky. Only if it can distinguish a nuclear explosion from all natural events will the detector be recommended for international test watching...
Died. Brigadier General (ret.) William Irving Westervelt, 83, Texas-born artillery expert who recommended in the early '20s the modernization of field weapons finally undertaken at the beginning of World War II, retired in 1927 to direct research for Sears, Roebuck & Co.; in Brattleboro...