Showing posts with label cold war nostalgia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cold war nostalgia. Show all posts

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Atomic power station and other Cold War toys

Above is a toy nuclear reactor circa 1965 and made by Wilhelm Schröder and Co. Interestingly, it was actually a working steam engine. Its instruction manual began with the following panegyric to the wonders of the upcoming atomic age:
“My dear friend,

A new technical era has made its appearance – the era of the atomic age. We are still on the very threshold of that bewildering and exciting period and you will be fortunate enough to grow into it. No doubt you will look at all these matters with a rather dispassionate technically trained mind, contrary to the older generation and perhaps also to your own parents. They still get a bitter feeling when they hear the word ‘atom’. For them it is coupled with the idea of the ‘atomic bomb’, with death and destruction. The thought of radioactive contamination has become a real nightmare to many of us. It is no wonder that they lose sight, under such circumstances, of the actual value of this nearly inexhaustible source of energy – a source of power on which we may have to rely in a near future to a still unthought of extent. Not for destructive purposes, but exclusively for peaceful aims…”

Well, that prediction didn't quite work out. I found the link to it AHC's The Cold War Home Front: Atomic Culture. That page has many other atomic themed Cold war era toys.

I was delighted to see the atomic submarine which is pictured below. When I was but a young sprout I received one of those as a Christmas gift and it was my favorite present that year. There's nothing quite like the memory of launching a little plastic SLBM to vaporize a Rooskie city to  bring a tear to an old guy's eyes. Ah, them were the days.

Click to enlarge

Monday, May 09, 2011

Budget Vacations - Atomic Annie

280MM Atomic Cannon in Junction City, Kansas
With the price of gas being so high, I imagine a lot of us are planning scaled back vacations this summer. As a public service I've decided to suggest off-beat, yet interesting, vacation destinations for the budget minded. To start I've selected the Atomic Annie located in Junction City Kansas. To get there take I-70 west from Kansas City.

The Atomic Annies were A-Bomb chucking field artillery developed in the 1950s. They had a bore of 280MM and could fire their Mark 9 nuclear artillery shells several miles down range. The Mark 9 was a 15 kiloton tactical nuclear warhead. 

It was test fired once, on May 25th, 1953. You can watch a video of that test below.

Eventually 20 of the Atomic Annies were built and some were deployed to the Far East and Europe. They were taken out of commission in the 1960s. Eight of the twenty remain. Here are the locations of all of them if Junction City is too far for cheap travel:

-Army Ordnance Museum, Aberdeen, Maryland (still has the two large "prime movers" attached)
-Atomic Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
-Fort Sill Museum, Oklahoma (the one that was test fired)
-Freedom Park, Junction City, Kansas
-Rock Island Arsenal, Memorial Field, Rock Island, Illinois
-Virginia War Memorial Museum, Newport News, Virginia
-Watervliet Arsenal, Watervliet, NY -- where they were all manufactured.
-Yuma Proving Ground, Yuma, Arizona


If you're near any of them, pack yourself a picnic lunch and take a day trip, or a long weekend, and visit a relic of the Cold War.