Did you know that the most awesome power known comes from the .
smallest piece of matter know to man? The hydrogen bomb, the largest .
explosion ever created. The equivalent of 10 hundred thousand tons of .
TNT (10 megatons). The hydrogen bomb is known for its great power and is dreaded by many for .
its great destruction. The Hydrogen bomb was first tested on November the 1, 1952. Just ten .
years after the nuclear age began, on December 2, 1942 at the University of Chicago, Enrico .
Fermi made a chain reaction in a pile of uranium. Around the time of this test the first Nuclear .
power plant opened in England. Also the United States dropped an Atomic bomb on Hiroshima, .
Japan, killing over 100,000 people. Four months later another atomic bomb was dropped .
Nagasaki, Japan, killing an additional 40,000. As you have read, the Hydrogen bomb is something .
that spread terror and amazement through the entire human race. You will learn how this weapon .
of monstrous power was created and how it works. .
It is November 1, 1952. Over the loud speaker you hear "5, 4, 3," There is a silence that .
everyone must have felt. The air was full of anticipation, terror and excitement. "2," the earth .
itself seems to fill with what could be its last breath. After a silence that seems much longer than a .
second "1." is heard, it echos in the heads of everyone there, bouncing back and forth inside .
them. The silence is unbearably loud. A blinding flash of light emanates from what seems like .
everywhere. Your eyes burn. What seems like hours but what probably only about a second a .
sound so loud that it feels like the earth is going to break away from beneath you thunders .
through your ears, through your body, through everything, rolls past. Still blinded by the white .
light, no one has any clue what is going on. Finally the light clears out of your eyes and what is .
seen is most amazing. Miles into the sky a giant mushroom cloud stands above you.
