The device seen in this photo is called Trinity. It was the widget used for nuclear testing that was nicknamed The Gadget. This device was considered the first ever Atomic Bomb made to be tested at the Trinity Site in New Mexico on July 16th, 1945, near Alamogordo. It was also the first bomb to be detonated in the Manhattan Project. J. Robert Oppenheimer came up with the code name “Trinity,” which was taken from a line of John Donne’s Poetry.
The structure of The Gadget was used again, and it replicated the design of the Fat Man, which was the bomb used during the last days of the Second World War.
Testing a Bulletproof Vest
In this photo, we see the testing of a bulletproof vest dated back to 1923. This demonstration was shot live at Washington City police headquarters. The two men in the photo are WH Murphy and his assistant at the Protective Garment Corporation of New York. The vest weighed about 11lb, which was considered comfortable and efficient because it fit perfectly on the body.
Soon after this vest was tested, the Protective Garment Corporation of New York started to manufacture a lightweight vest for the police to use. Of course, these men were inventors and salesmen, and their main goal was to convince the police that their vests worked and that they would save hundreds of lives.
The Bikini Atoll Program
In this photo, we see the nuclear testing at the Bikini Atoll program, which was a series of 23 nuclear devices detonated by the United States between the years 1946 to 1958. Seems a bit scary that it was detonated so close to neighboring islands, but these weapons were tested on the reef itself and in the air.
This all started in July of 1946 with Operation Crossroads, a nuclear weapon test. The island of Bikini Atoll, which is one of the 23 islands that consisted of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, was uninhabitable because of all the radiation.
Kobe, 1945
The bombing of the Japanese city of Kobe was all part of the strategic campaign that was waged by the United States of America against civilian and military targets. A few months later, during the war, the city was bombed for the second time because it was the sixth-largest area of Japan, with a population of over one million people.
This photo is unique and rare and shows the city of Kobe from a bird's view. The raid that took place on the 16th and 17th of March 1945 was one of the harshest ones in that war, making only the bombing of Hiroshima more tragic and devastating.
Nagasaki, 1945
This photo is of the before and after of the Japanese city of Nagasaki. It was bombed on August 9, 1945. A plutonium bomb was detonated over the city, killing over 39,000 to 80,000 people that day. These photos only show rare proof of what had happened.
The bombing of Nagasaki was the beginning of the end of the Second World War. Six days after the horrific event, the Japanese army surrendered, and on September 2nd, 1945, the Instrument of Surrender was signed. Studies claim that there was no other way to bring the war to an end, and if atomic weapons were not used, the war would have resulted in many more casualties on both sides.