Atomic Bomb Explosion

© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc.
Atomic Bomb Explosion
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduction or publication.

Atomic Bomb Explosion

Datebefore 1952
Artist (American scientist and photographer, 1903–1990)
MediumGelatin silver print
Dimensionsimage: 12 1/8 x 9 1/2 in. (30.8 x 24.1 cm)
sheet: 14 × 11 1/8 in. (35.6 × 28.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Harold and Esther Edgerton Foundation, 1996
Object number1996-42.1
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsPHOTOGRAPH
Label TextStarting in 1947, Edgerton's company EG&G devised instrumentation for the Atomic Energy Commission. During and after World War II, Edgerton and his colleagues were called upon by the government to develop long-distance photographic equipment that recorded high-speed phenomena. This photograph reveals the first microsecond of an atomic bomb explosion. The fireball was documented in a 1/100,000,000 of a second exposure taken with a camera lens ten feet long placed seven miles from the blast. The intense heat that was generated vaporized the steel tower and turned the desert sand to glass.
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1942
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1952
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1934
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1934
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1936
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1936
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1957, printed 1985
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc.  Not for reproduc…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1938, printed 1985
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduct…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1973, printed 1985
© Harold Edgerton/MIT, courtesy Palm Press, Inc. Not for reproduction or publication.
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1965, printed 1985
© The Harold and Esther Edgerton Family Foundation, courtesy Palm Press, Inc.  Not for reproduc…
Harold Eugene Edgerton
1964, printed 1985