nuclear weapon battery
date: label: date made
content: ca 1954
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A clear plastic case with 15 battery plates; cloth material separates the plates. Written on one side “NCN”.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The donor wrote the following account: "From May 1, 1947 thru December 1955 I served on the staff of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy as the staff mining engineer. I also followed the physical and biological research programs in addition to the raw materials program which was [spending] $1,000,000 per year in that period.
label: Description (Brief)
content: In those years the Congress met from mid-January thru July 1 and then went home to their [districts] for [the] next 6 [months]. In this period the staff visited [Atomic Energy Commission] plants and laboratories frequently with members to learn in detail about the operations of the AEC.
label: Description (Brief)
content: During a visit of two days in the mid fifties to the Pontex Plant at Amarillo, Texas, where weapons are assembled, dismantled, modernized, and disposed of, I was given this Edison type battery from a rebuilt weapon. These batteries were [used] to power the electronic equipment in the weapon. When the weapon was armed, [electrolyte] was added to the cell to activate it. I believe this cell had never been armed as it was free of [electrolyte]. It was from a weapon being modernized and its electronics being replaced with a new system."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Edward L. Heller
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2011.0188.01
label: catalog number
content: 2011.0188.01
label: accession number
content: 2011.0188
objectType: label: Object Name
content: battery
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/2 in x 2 5/8 in x 3/4 in; 11.43 cm x 6.6675 cm x 1.905 cm