SCIENTIFIC OFFENSIVE 



would be necessary to throw aside the goggles durmg 

 this important transition stage. 



A more versatile aid to the ''obsolete" human eye 

 was the Icaroscope. This device, invented during the 

 war by Prof. Brian O'Brien of the University of 

 Rochester, represents the first use of the optical analog 

 of the automatic volume control commonly used in 

 radio sets. In the Icaroscope, excess brilliance is elimi- 

 nated by means of an ingenious use of phosphorescence. 

 Phosphorescent images, not direct images, are viewed. 

 And whereas objects of intermediate brightness appear 

 little changed, over-brilliant objects are subdued to a 

 comfortable brightness. During the war the Icaro- 

 scope permitted effortless visual detection of airplanes 

 approaching directly ''out of the sun." At Bikini, 

 over fifty Icaroscopes were made ready for viewing the 

 almost-unviewable fireball. A few of the Icaroscopes 

 were scanned by motion-picture cameras instead of 

 eyes. 



NUCLEAR RADIATIONS 



Nuclear radiations, almost unknown to the public 

 prior to the obliteration of Hiroshima, are now well 

 known. Thus, gamma rays are true rays or waves; 

 they resemble X-rays, but can penetrate even a foot- 



eye injury. The goggles actually transmitted only about 0.003 per- 

 cent of the light striking them; without doubt a transmission two 

 to ten times greater would have been better under the particular 

 conditions prevailing. 



79 



