Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz

SOVIET UNION ANNOUNCES THEIR

FIRST H-BOMB DETONATION

TEXT OF SOVIET STATEMENT

released in Moscow, Thursday, 20 August 1953

by Pravda, official organ of the Soviet Communist party

Photo of mushroom cloud from Hydrogen Bomb detonation

First Soviet Hydrogen Bomb (Joe-4) (source)

Within the last few days an explosion of one of a variety of hydrogen bombs was carried out for experimental purposes.

Because of the existence in the hydrogen bomb of a mighty thermonuclear reaction, the explosion was of great strength.

The test showed that the power of the hydrogen bomb is many times greater than the power of the atomic bomb.

It is known that the Soviet Union has for several years possessed the atomic weapon and made several tests with this weapon. As follows from the speech of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the U.S.S.R., G. Malenkov, on Aug. 8 at the fifth session of the Supreme Soviet, the Soviet Union has taken possession of the secret of the production of the hydrogen bomb.

This information of the Soviet Government caused a great deal of reaction abroad.

Some foreign circles who had laid their stake on their policy of the monopoly of the United States in the possession of the atomic bomb, and later of the hydrogen bomb, aspired to intimidate people by the fact that the Soviet Union possessed the secret of the production of the hydrogen weapon, and, in connection with this, cause alarm, using it with the aim of intensifying the armaments drive.

The Soviet Government regards it as essential to declare that there is not and was not any reason for alarm. In accordance with the unchanging policy of the Soviet Union directed to the strengthening of peace and the security of nations, the Soviet Government repeatedly offered to the governments of other countries the carrying out of a considerable reduction of armaments and the forbidding of the use of the atomic and other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, establishing within the framework of the United Nations strict international control of this Prohibition.

The Soviet Government solemnly stands on this position at the present time.

[The Soviet announcement gave few details of the test. U.S. scientists determined the detonation took place on 12 Aug 1953, and gave it the reference name of “Joe-4”.]

Image added, not in original text, from source shown above. Text as reprinted in New York Times (20 Aug 1953), 1.

Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)