gallery bouglaf
~ level XV

Great
British bompix

Yes, it's 1953 in dear old Blighty, year of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation. HRH is radiant with delight as "Totem" performs a thermonuclear curtsy at 30,000 feet.

The shot took place on 26 October 1953 at Emu Field in South Australia. At 8 kiloton it was the size of bomb the Australians were prepared to have around. "Mosaic", pictured above right, a big 'un at 98 kiloton, 19 June 1956, near Monte Bello Island, violated the Australian upper limit of around 60 kilotons on nuclear testing. Its yield was not officially disclosed until 1984.

Despite radiation blackening, great Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan utters his famous proposition concerning the Conservative Party. The statement was finally verified by "Thatcher's Proof", the exposition of which lasted for eighteen years from 1979 and culturally impoverished Great Britain. HRH is sensibly clad in a 100% organic Aboriginal radiation protector as "Breakaway" blows at approx. 10 kiloton on Australia's Maralinga Test Range, 22 October 1956.

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Meet "Hurricane", the photogenically-challenged first British atomic bomb. The 25 kiloton device went off in the hull of a ship on 3 October 1952 near Monte Bello Island. There was concern at the time over the possibility of bombs being shipped up the Thames. Government scientists wanted to find out precisely what would happen if you let an atomic bomb off on a ship. (Science is, of course, notorious for elaborate proofs of the glaringly obvious.) A design team from Battersea Park's Ghost Train was called in to produce the "spook you out like this" outline effect. It was later decided to forego the expense of such terror-provoking features, as people were already demented with fear all over the world about the whole bomb thing.