gallery bouglaf
~ level XV

Great
British bompix

Yes, it's 1953 in dear old Blighty, year of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation.�� HRH is radiant with delight as "Totem" performs a thermonuclear curtsy at 30,000 feet.

The shot took place on 26 October 1953 at Emu Field in South Australia.� At 8 kiloton it was the size of bomb the Australians were prepared to have around. "Mosaic", pictured above right, a big 'un at 98 kiloton, 19 June 1956, near Monte Bello Island, violated the Australian upper limit of around 60 kilotons on nuclear testing.� Its yield was not officially disclosed until 1984.�

Despite radiation blackening, great Welsh politician Aneurin Bevan utters his famous proposition concerning the Conservative Party. The statement was finally verified� by "Thatcher's� Proof", the exposition of which lasted for eighteen years from 1979 and culturally impoverished Great Britain.� HRH is sensibly clad in a 100% organic Aboriginal radiation protector as "Breakaway" blows at approx. 10 kiloton on Australia's Maralinga Test Range, 22 October 1956.

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Meet "Hurricane", the photogenically-challenged first British atomic bomb.� The 25 kiloton device went off in the hull of� a ship on 3 October 1952 near Monte Bello Island.�� There was concern at the time over the possibility of bombs being shipped up the Thames.� Government scientists wanted to find out precisely what would happen if you let an atomic bomb off on a ship. (Science is, of course, notorious for elaborate proofs of the glaringly obvious.)� A design team from Battersea Park's Ghost Train was called in to produce the "spook you out like this" outline effect.� It was later decided to forego the expense of such terror-provoking features, as people were already demented with fear all over the world about the whole bomb thing.