Image: WestinghouseAtomSmasher

Description: Picture of the Westinghouse Atom Smasher on the grounds of the old Westinghouse Research Laboratories at Avenue A, Service Road No. 1, and West Street in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, on May 9, 2010. Built in 1937, the "atom smasher" is more accurately termed a Van de Graaff particle accelerator. Though decommissioned, it is preserved as a local piece of history. The atom smasher is on the List of Pittsburgh Landmarks recognized by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation (PHLF). On page 470 of Franklin Toker's book Pittsburgh: A New Portrait (2009), it says the following: "It was the first testing ground anywhere for the industrial application of nuclear physics and was used to observe the action of particles that were shot through a vacuum tube at 100 million miles an hour. From it came the first fission of uranium atoms by gamma rays, an important step in the science of nuclear energy. Based on the discoveries made at this facility, in 1957 Pittsburgh became the world's first nuclear-powered city (the nuclear plant providing the city's power was decommissioned about twenty years later). It is auspicious that Westinghouse preserved the historic atom smasher rather than scrapping it. Today, ground zero at Hiroshima symbolizes the birth of the nuclear age, but should the peaceful applications of the atom prevail over the military ones, the appropriate symbol of the nuclear age may be this steel tank in Pittsburgh."
Title: WestinghouseAtomSmasher
Credit: self-made Transferred from en.wikipedia
Author: Lee Paxton
Usage Terms: GNU Free Documentation License
License: GFDL
License Link: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
Attribution Required?: Yes