H-Bomb

The power and responsibility of the next President of the U.S. may have been vastly increased by a report that arrived last week from Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific: the first hydrogen bomb, perhaps 1,000 times more powerful than the first atomic bombs, was exploded.

The report was contained in a letter giving an eyewitness account of the explosion. The letter was received by a Los Angeles woman, published in the Los Angeles Examiner. Excerpts:

"Early this morning we stood on the deck facing the islands we couldn't see. Everyone waited tensely as the loudspeaker announced the minutes, then seconds, four, three, two, one. Then, right on the nose, through glasses so dark absolutely nothing could be seen, appeared a huge orange ball, materializing out of nothing, which grew larger and brighter until it appeared as if no dark glasses were there at all. An intense heat struck us almost immediately and the ball of fire started to rise and slowly lose its intensity. We took off our glasses and saw water vapor suddenly form around the column.

"Then it rushed into the base of the column and up, clearing the air so that you could see countless tons of water rushing skyward--drawn up the column by that tremendous unseen force. The column went up & up and finally mushroomed. About three minutes* later, the report, like a nearby cannon shot, hit us and was followed by several seconds of dull rumbling. Then the mushroom expanded into a free halo, growing with tornado-like speed and reaching nearly over our ship before it appeared to cease growing. Then it appeared to connect itself to the main column by a web of filmy vapor. Typical comment from the oldtimers: 'Holy cow. That sure makes the A-bomb a runt.' "

Another eyewitness sent a description to relatives in Lima, Ohio, who gave it to the Lima News. "About 15 minutes after shot time," he wrote, "the island on which the bomb had been set off started to burn, and it turned a brilliant red . . . Within six hours, an island that once had palm trees and coconuts was now nothing. A mile-wide island had actually disappeared."

The three-minute interval indicates that the observer was about 36 miles from the point of explosion.

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