Atomic Snapshots: Eads Hall

In Eads Hall at Washington University in St. Louis, you’ll find a grouping of plaques and information in the first floor hallway. The building housed the Department of Physics where Arthur Compton demonstrated the particle concept of electromagnetic radiation, proving Einstein’s proposal that light was both a wave and particle. The Compton Effect garnered him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927.

Arthur Compton went on to direct the Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab) at the University of Chicago, a vital link in the Manhattan Project, which supported the development, construction, and operation of the reactors at Hanford and enrichment activities at Oak Ridge.

The grouping consists of an informational plaque, an historic marker, a photograph, the sketched experiment of the scattering of X-rays, and a description of his Nobel Prize winning experiment.

KEM 1945 Christmas Card

A 1945 Christmas card from political cartoonist Kimon Evan Marengo (Kem). This card comments on the dropping of atomic bombs, showing Harry S. Truman as the Statue of Liberty, holding both money and the bomb. Joseph Stalin, Clement Attleee, Charles De Gaulle, and Chaing Kai-shek all hold out hands of friendship, but they are really reaching out for the atom bomb in Truman’s hand. (Source.)

Atomic Nuclear Plant

Atomic Toys: Atomic Reactor Steam Plant

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Atomic Nuclear Plant

In the 1950s, Louis Marx and Company produced the Linemar Atomic Reactor through its Linemar line of tin toys manufactured in Japan. This operating steam engine is complete with water tank and boiler (the reactor dome with safety valve), fuel to heat the water (Esbit tablets), and battery (for the lighted cooling tower). The cylinder oscillates with an oiler on the steam chest. To keep things safe, a guard rail surrounds the engine.

Selling for approximately $19.95 in the mid 1950s (about $193 in 2019 dollars), this was an investment for lots of continuing fun. You can find this in collector’s markets today from between $300 to $700. Or you can just have as much fun watching modern collectors display their wares online:

In the 1960s, Wilesco (Wilhelm Schröder GmbH & Co KG), from Germany, manufactured the Wilesco R200 Nuclear Power Plant Steam Engine which added the convenience of using an electric heater for the reactor dome rather than Esbit tablets. This version changed the look to a more modern cooling tower along with a more reliable engine.

Unfortunately, the R200 Nuclear Power Plant was not their biggest seller among their several lines of steam engines because most people were wary of the safety of anything labeled “atomic” or “nuclear” — even in a small toy. (Remember all the warnings of “completely safe” with all the other atomic toys?) The R200 had a 16mm stroke, 9mm diameter, and 70mm flywheel. Because of the quality of the German design and the limited number of production, the collector’s market price for the Wilesco R200 is around $1200.

Watch the Wilesco R200 in operation: