Science: Atomic X Ray

According to the Japs, the atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki had radioactive effects so deadly and persistent that “everything still living was waiting to die” long after their explosions. U.S. authorities minimize these reports. The atomic bombs, they claimed, were deliberately exploded high in the air; consequently their gamma rays would be spread out thin and their radioactive byproducts dissipated in the atmosphere.

The atomic X-ray picture on this page (as far as TIME knows, the first published) was taken with radioactive materials formed by the explosion of an atomic bomb. It shows a woman’s rayon purse stuffed with feminine necessaries: keys, coins, a bobby pin and a bottle of nail polish. The metal clasp is clearly visible. The semi-transparent oblong below is a package of chewing gum. The picture was made by placing the purse on a sheet of ordinary photographic film. On top of the purse were placed pieces of twisted steel and several bits of fused earth from the site of the famous bomb test in New Mexico. Their radiation (probably gamma rays) penetrated the cloth easily, the gum with more difficulty, but was stopped by the metal objects.

The picture proves neither the U.S. nor the Jap contention. But it does prove that the New Mexico bomb, exploding only 100 feet above the ground, left a quarter-mile area covered with materials which were radioactive enough, nine weeks later, to take X-ray pictures.