Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-04-24
BY ALTON L. BLAKESLEE
A,.eeiatad Pres, ssianra Ranorfar

Keys 70 saving your nome ana
family in atomic war can come
from an atomic blast set for
Tuesday.
The blast will strike at q
model survival city" involving
10 homes. including very likely
the kind you live in.
And for the first time women
will crouch in trenches with
troops-only two miles from an
A-explosion bigger than that
which leveled homes and fac
tories in Hiroshima and Naza-
saki. Japan.
This bomb will thunder and
flame at what might be a bit of
your own home town. At one
and two story homes with
pantries Of food. gas stoves, re-
frigerators, medicine cabinets,
basement or bathroom shelters.
At warehouses, stores, factories.
powerlines. radio towers-at all
the familiar warp and wool of
modern living.
Answers Are Sought
What happens to them, and
how better to design them all
for survival, will be among
answers sought in this open,
televised atom shot to be wit
messed by some 1000 civilian
defense observers. 1t will be wit
messed. too, by thousands of
soldiers practicing with tanks
and conventional weapons to
survive and fight on an atomic
battlefield.
Women active in civilian de-
Tense are vying for the chance
to be i'll trenches nearly as close,
at $500 yards. as any American
has ever been to an atomic blast.
A few woman, chosen by lot,
will be among 80 closeup civilian
observers.
The homes and all the COM
forts and sinews of modern liv-
ing will be the main target Of
civilian interest.
For war again today involves
"our homes and doorsteps" as in
past days when women loaded
The muskets. helped put our
fires" Val Peterson, Federal Civil
Defense administrator, declared
today.
knowledge Needed
In any future war. "the enemy
is going to shoot first right at
the heart of our production
strength-at our homes, our fac
tories, even our farms. And he's
going to try to make that first
blow so paralyzing that we'll
never be able to get up off the
floor and fight back" Mr.. Peter
son said.
That is why we need to know
everything we possibly can learn
about the kind Of weapons that
might be used against US. &.
We must study thoroughly blast.
heat and radiation, and their
separate effects on our homes,
our factories. our food stocks,
our communications system.
not only to survive, but to fight
back
I'VE have to know more and
more about what kind of houses
we should build, what kind Of
offices. factories. shelters, to give
US the best chance of survival.
We have to learn how to
protect our food. our water, our
own lives. :. :"
Survival city" is designed to
obtain some answers.
Spotted at distances one to
three miles from the center of
the atomic blast to be detonated
atop a 500-foot tower, will be
10 homes six small industrial
Or stereotype structures, a radio
station with two tall antennas
and transmission towers. two
complete electrical power lines.
gas lines or mains, more than
two dozen trucks and trailerS.
Represent Typical Town
In capsule. they represent a
section of a typical town.
II a bomb centers over your
home. no one gives you much
II any chance. But if it is some
distance away, you have chances
often good-of surviving.
In the homes will be manne-
ouin parents and children. TAX
ing shelter or caught at the
fateful moment at ordinary
homely pursuits.
To detail some radiation eff
fects, mice and rats will be
scurrying about in shelters, some
only half a mile distant.
Not only home but many OF
the ordinary things within them
will be at the heart of the test
Some $50 industrial firms and
associations are participating
with their products in the test
ing.
Six homes will be one story
structures. four will be two
stories. Two of the single story
homes will be frame buildings
four concrete. Of the double
story homes two are frame. two
brick.
AS for furnishings. the test
will determine what happens to
aluminium screens or Venetian
blinds, or windows coated or not
coated, as with securing cleanser
what happens to textiles, natural
or synthetic, which make cur
tains. rugs. clothing.
Dozens Of Answers
Industrial" buildings under
test will have aluminium, steel OF