Videos
Film 1: An excerpt from a Los Alamos National Laboratory video showing the preparations for the “100-ton” high explosives test--the “dress rehearsal” for the atomic explosion in July. This footage shows the stacking of the 108-tons of high explosives and the threading through the stack of the plastic tubing that carried diluted plutonium. (Video excerpt from film “Trinity 2,” courtesy of Image Archives, Los Alamos National Laboratory).
Film 2: The detonation of “100 tons” of high explosives at the Trinity site on 7 May 1945. Thanks to Peter Kuran, founder of AtomCentral, for this footage, which he discovered and restored, and to Alan Brady Carr and Los Alamos National Laboratory for the film scanning project that made the discovery possible.
Film 3: Jumbo: Owing to test planner’s concern that the Trinity device could fizzle with high explosives spreading immensely valuable plutonium across the desert, General Groves approved the construction of a huge steel vessel, nicknamed Jumbo, to contain the bomb and prevent such a loss. This film shows Jumbo, in late April 1945, at a railroad spur after its arrival by train from Ohio. A 64 wheel trailer carried Jumbo to the Trinity site, 30 miles away. With growing confidence that the “gadget” would work as planned, Jumbo was not used for its purpose, but placed in a tower 800 yards from ground zero. (Excerpt from LANL video, “Trinity 2”) (For the Jumbo story, see Robert S. Norris, Racing for the Bomb: General Leslie R. Groves, The Manhattan Project’s Indispensable Man, 297-299)
Film 4: U.S. Department of Energy, Albuquerque Operations Office, “Trinity Historical Footage.” This film depicts preparations for the Trinity test, showing scientists and technicians working on the plutonium implosion weapon before hoisting it to the top of the tower, where they made additional adjustments. At various moments, shown at work, are Norris Bradbury at 02:36 (and elsewhere) and Louis Slotin (wearing sunglasses), at 00:44, who later died from a criticality experiment at Los Alamos. Also shown, at 10:00, in the back, is Harry Daghlian, another criticality experiment casualty. Robert Oppenheimer appears briefly at 0:32 and 10:41. Note the unobserved “Wear A Hard Hat” warning beginning at 6:36. Any corrections or information on other individuals depicted in this film are welcome.
According to the National Declassification Center, the Department of Energy deleted over 9 minutes from this film; the excisions likely concern the more sensitive aspects of the final assembly of the device, such as the insertion of the plug that contained the plutonium. Unfortunately, the reviewers did not indicate where the deletions occur. (NARA Motion Pictures Unit, Film 77.15A)
Film 5: The nuclear explosion, 16 July 1945: This excerpt shows the detonation from different vantage points: the first at ground level and the second at a higher altitude showing the formation of the nuclear cloud. (Excerpt from LANL video, “Trinity 2”)
