 You and I are living in the atomic age. The peaceful atom, no longer just a laboratory dream, is here today working wonders, providing a happier, more abundant world for all mankind. Already, atomic development is a major factor in the American economy. Thousands of men and women earn their livelihood by harnessing nuclear energy for our benefit. The Chamber of Commerce of the United States is going to introduce you to just a few of these atomic wonders, miracles that are happening all about you, wherever you are, because the atom has come to town. The atom is on its way to brighten our towns and to help manufacture our most dependable and indispensable household electric power. Electricity that illuminates our lives frees us from drudgery and brings us in contact with all the world through radio, telephone, and television can now be produced from the energy within the atom. And to some of us at least, this is surprising news. You know, I don't know what I'd do without my new kitchen. Really, it saves me hours of work every day. But do you suppose that our appliances would run as well on atomic energy? Hey, Sam, you know that someday this machine of yours is going to be operating on atomic power? Yeah. Well, they can run it on kerosene if they want to, just as long as I'm still at the switch. It'll take quite a while before these atomic power plants even get built. I declare with all these atomic plants going up everywhere, I wonder if the girls even safe in her own home. I just hope they know what they're doing. Who's lead? I see by the morning paper we're getting an atom power plant here. I remember when this town got its first electric generating station. I was only a boy. Tom Edison himself came down for the ceremony's checkmate. Don't gents write about one thing. This town has sure grown up since he was a kid. I don't understand, why do we need an atomic power plant unless maybe it's to make free electricity? Yeah, I suppose that's the reason. Well, no, that's not exactly the reason. But never mind. A lot of other folks are just as confused about the real purpose of atomic energy. And it all begins with a particle of matter so small that it can't be seen under even the strongest microscope. The end of that billiard cue, for instance, could comfortably accommodate more than 1,000 billion billion atoms. But infinitesimal as it is, scientists know pretty well just how the atom is constructed. Let's imagine these pool balls are the nucleus of an atom. There would be protons like the red balls and neutrons like the yellow ones. All bound together by powerful forces. If our atom is split or fissioned, some of the energy is released. A few of the neutrons go flying off and can be made to split other atoms, which release their energy in a chain reaction. Tremendous heat is generated and it is this heat that can be harnessed for our use. Every element in the world is made of atoms. But only the atoms of a very few elements can be split in this way. The most important are uranium atoms. Potential energy in just one tablespoon of uranium equals the muscle power of 40 million strong men working for an hour, or the heat from more than 750 tons of coal. In fact, one tablespoon of uranium is potentially capable of making enough electricity to meet all the needs of an average size city for a full day, or your own home for about 500 years. But this is potential atomic energy. In actual practice, only a small amount of the uranium fuel can be burned or fissioned. The trick is to make electric power economically from this usable portion of the fuel. Atomic engineers begin with the simple energy conversion principle by which most of our country's electricity is already being produced. Fire can be used to make steam, and steam can be used to turn a pinwheel. If the spinning pinwheel is attached to a magnet, the invisible lines of magnetic force can be made to cut across the turns of wire in a coil, generating electricity. In today's modern electric power plants, this is exactly what happens. Coal, oil, or gas is burned in huge boilers which produce steam at tremendously high temperatures and pressures. The steam spins a large turbine which drives a giant generator to create the electricity we use. In an atomic power plant, a reactor is substituted for the boiler. The reactor is a special chamber in which atoms of uranium fuel are split, releasing their pent-up energy in the form of heat. Of course, safety devices are added, including dense radiation shielding and special enclosures such as a steel spear. Otherwise, an atomic power plant is just about the same as any other power plant. It will produce the same kind of electricity and run the same kind of appliances and machines as we are using now. Over the years, our consumption of electricity has increased enormously. Ten years ago, the average use in an American family was about 1500 kilowatt hours of power a year. Now, with so many more household chores being done electrically, about 3000 kilowatt hours are needed. And 10 years from now, the average American family may be using twice this amount. The same thing has been happening in our factories. In 10 years, twice as much electricity will be needed to maintain our increasing rate of productivity. Already, the United States, with but 6 percent of the world's population, uses over 40 percent of the world's electric power. It's one reason why we enjoy the highest living standard of any nation in the world. In the years ahead, our electric power consumption will continue to increase. More for our homes and more for our factories will bring the nation's total demand to at least four times the present level by 1975. Right now, most electric power is made by burning coal, oil or gas. But all those supplies of these fuels are adequate to meet demands for years to come. They are not inexhaustible. Besides, these conventional fuels are needed for many other important purposes, in addition to the generation of electricity. As our power requirements increase, a new energy resource, atomic energy, will be needed to supplement our present fuel reserves. Fortunately, known uranium deposits exceed by at least 20 times the combined power producing potential of all the world's coal, oil and gas resources. Thus, the real purpose of atomic power development is to assure a continuing abundance of electricity. And already, progress is being made. This atomic power plant, built for the army, is generating small amounts of electricity at an important base in Virginia. Originally developed for use by the armed forces in overseas locations, this type of station may eventually prove useful in remote areas of this country. Near Los Angeles is another of America's early reactor projects, built as part of the government's nuclear power development program. A California electric utility has installed a power plant to provide electricity from the reactor heat on an experimental basis. Near Pleasanton, California is the nation's first nuclear power plant built entirely with free enterprise funds. As with every atomic plant, special attention has been given to safety. Automatic control equipment would shut down the plant instantaneously, if for any reason, fission began to take place too rapidly. A thick steel and concrete vessel would contain radiation even in the most serious kind of accident imaginable. Atomic power plants will be good neighbors wherever they are built. This is shipping port Pennsylvania, site of America's first full-scale atomic power station. When completed, it will be the largest known atomic plant in the world, devoted exclusively to peaceful purposes. But it won't make free electricity. No atomic plant ever will. Shipping port's complex nuclear apparatus and tons of concrete and steel add up to a multi-million dollar investment jointly shared by government and business. On the quiet banks of the Ohio River, genuine evidence of our nation's atomic progress. For the present, at least, this progress must be measured more by the nuclear knowledge we gain than by the actual power we generate. Electric utility executives must choose from hundreds of different designs, all of which are theoretically possible. The most promising must first be tried out in small-scale reactor experiments, then incorporated in actual power plants before their commercial value can be established. It's expensive research, but important plans are underway. This is a model of a 275,000 kilowatt station which will go into operation outside of New York City sometime in 1960. This plant, now under construction near Detroit, will have a different type of reactor capable of actually manufacturing more atomic fuel than it burns. By 1960, power from this atomic station will be furnished to a half million homes in the Chicago area. And in the hills of New England, work is already underway on this modern nuclear project. During the next 10 years, atomic plants will be springing up throughout the nation. As America's electrical industry, working in the pre-enterprised tradition, invests hundreds of millions of dollars in nuclear development. And by 1975, the atom may provide a substantial portion of our total generating capacity. The world will have a brand new energy resource, one that will be vitally needed to assure an abundance of economical electricity for light, for power, and for our continuing high standard of living. But atomic energy can also be shipped in a can in the form of radioisotopes, mysterious products of the atomic age that start out as ordinary elements but become radioactive through exposure to atomic fission. Their radiations are invisible, yet so powerful that just one drop of radioactive water can be detected in a full tank car of ordinary water. At the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where most radioisotopes are produced, an atomic drug store is maintained. Here, mechanical hands fill prescriptions for a variety of customers in every corner of the nation. One radioisotope user may be the hospital in your own town. More than 900 medical centers and clinics employ the atom in the fight against disease. Doctors have discovered that radioisotopes can be extremely useful, particularly in the diagnosis of specific ailments. One well-known technique is the atomic cocktail, prepared by mixing a few drops of radioactive iodine with ordinary drinking water. This simple drink, which serves as a tracer, is used by physicians who work with patients suspected of having thyroid trouble. And incidentally, one of its best features is its complete tastelessness. If, as suspected, the patient's thyroid is overactive, the iodine will concentrate in the gland in excessive amounts. Within 48 hours, the radioactive iodine can be traced with atomic detecting equipment. Sensitive instruments measure the thyroid's performance, giving the doctor an accurate picture of the gland's condition, and helping him decide on the kind of treatment the patient should have. Several other ailments, including some diseases of the liver and blood, can be diagnosed in much the same way. In larger doses, radioisotopes are also used therapeutically to control diseases such as polycythemia and bring relief for certain types of leukemia. Here at New York's Memorial Center, a cobalt machine is used for deep radiation of cancer. This rotational therapy is similar to x-ray treatment, but the new equipment using a radioisotope source is more flexible in its ability to reach the malignancy. At the New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston, the cancer operation is in progress. As the diseaved tissue is removed, a specimen is kept for basic research on the behavior of cancer cells under atomic radiation. In the research institute adjacent to the hospital, the specimen tissues are quickly processed and then they are incubated in a special fluid medium which supplies nutrition and allows them to continue growing. Finally, the cells are ready for study under a powerful microscope and their behavior is accurately recorded by a motion picture camera. These are living cancer cells, functioning just as though they were still within the patient. They are splitting apart in the process of mitosis, the way in which all cells multiply and the way by which the disease spreads in the body. Medical science is searching for a reliable means of destroying the cells completely through radiation. A small amount of radioactive material is placed over the laboratory culture. The cells are exposed for a short time to atomic bombardment. Here is a cancer cell actually dying after radiation. Its furious struggle to split is of no avail and its malignant growth is halted. If it were still within the patient's body, it could no longer threaten his life. Many hours of painstaking research lie ahead before these laboratory successes can be translated into actual clinical practice but each day medical science moves closer to the complete conquest of this dreaded disease and already through the healing power of the atom we can all look forward to happier, healthier lives for ourselves and our families. The atom has come to the farm too. With radioisotopes, agricultural specialists are learning important new facts about plants and livestock. These youngsters may not realize it but they're growing up in a unique laboratory at the University of Maryland where their mothers are cooperating in some highly unusual research. The ordinary dairy cow is a remarkable factory. She's one of nature's few animals capable of converting grass into milk. Yet how she does it and why some cows give more milk than others has largely remained the mystery. Now some of the answers are being discovered with radioisotopes. Various chemicals similar to those the cow might get in her regular food are harmlessly injected into her bloodstream. The chemicals have first been tagged with the radioisotope but since the cow doesn't know this she processes them just like any other diet and later she returns them to the professors in the conventional manner. In the laboratory the sample is broken down into its major components to see how much of the radioactive injection was actually converted into first quality milk. A Geiger counter provides the data with an accuracy never before obtained. New clues to cattle nutrition which will mean more milk and better milk on our breakfast tables. Even the dependable cow is getting health from the atom that takes place every autumn in the Southland. The peanut harvest governmental farm operated by North Carolina State University. The peanuts being so carefully classified and tagged were grown from seeds radiated in atomic reactors. Radiation upsets normal hereditary characteristics creating new plant families with widely varying qualities. Plant biologists select only a few for development into permanent strains. Experimental cultivation of these new varieties has been encouraging. There is a good chance of boosting acreage yield by 10 to 15 percent and the atomic peanuts stronger resistance to blight may eventually save millions of dollars every year. These are giants created by radiation. We can imagine their future impact on the peanut buying public. Equally significant are the many manufactured products including the family car which are now being developed with atomic energy. Radio isotopes are among the more important research tools in Detroit. In factory laboratories automotive men assemble special engines with operating parts which have been made radioactive. As these unique power plants run on the test stands any metal which wears away is collected in the lubricating oil and the oil is circulated through an atomic scintillation counter. Being radioactive the most minute metal particles can be detected providing an accurate indication of the rate of engine wear. This is vital information for the men who are now designing the better cars of the future. The tires on your car also wear longer thanks to the out for nowadays radio isotopes help check quality. Much of the strength in an automobile tire comes from its nylon core to which just the right amount of rubber coating must be added for maximum safety. After the coating has been applied the fabric passes under an atomic thickness gauge. This device can tell immediately whether the proper amount of rubber is being added. If there is a fraction too much or too little the gauge sends back a signal and the machine is readjusted. This is automation a giant rubber mill controlled by invisible atomic rays and it means a safer set of tires on your own family car. Paste may be a product of the atomic age. These teeth which have first been made radioactive at Oak Ridge are being scrubbed with a new toothpaste containing stannous fluoride a chemical which makes them harder to dissolve. After their laboratory brushing the teeth are dunked in acids similar to those which are formed in the mouth and cause tooth decay. The acid solution if it does succeed in dissolving any of the tooth enamel must also pick up its radioactivity which can be accurately measured in a Geiger counter. The count is low indicating the new toothpaste with stannous fluoride will do its job of preventing cavities. Home from a trip you may have been carrying an atomic suitcase. At least its tough plastic skin which absorbs the abuse of baggage rooms and luggage racks may have been made in machinery controlled by radio isotopes. An atom ray thickness gauge sends a specified amount of radiation through the plastic as it travels between the rollers making sure that thickness stays within prescribed limits. Already more than 1200 American businesses are using the atom to help manufacture their products from raincoats to razor blades. Yet it's really just a beginning. In the next few years atomic radiation may lead to major changes in several of our most important industries particularly the petroleum industry. Nowadays only one in nine exploratory wells pays off as oil becomes harder and harder to find. The earth still holds plenty of oil hidden within certain types of rock strata but no one can tell ahead of time just where these formations are located. Drilling operations must be halted while samples of rock at different depths are cored out and brought up for inspection. Thousands of feet of pipe are yanked from the well and lassoed to the top of the dairy breaking time consuming expensive work. At last from a depth of almost a mile the cored out rock reaches the surface and is quickly rushed to a laboratory for detailed chemical analysis. Oil companies have been searching for a better means of identifying mineral formations below the earth. Now atomic energy may offer the answer. In the research laboratory various types of rock are collected and prepared for testing. Since every mineral reacts differently to radiation scientists can now identify specific rock strata by their radiation response. A particle accelerator or atom smasher is used to bombard the rock specimens. The test is ready. The room is evacuated. The accelerator is energized. As radiation intensity builds up the reaction of the sample is recorded providing definite identification of many of the mineral elements in the rock. Now just one additional technique remains to be perfected. Engineers are experimenting with a portable downhole radiation source. With this miniature atom smasher oil men may be able to obtain instrument readings at the site and by comparing them with laboratory data already gathered correctly identify the rock formations below. Radiation will be the eyes of the geologist allowing him to see literally thousands of feet below the surface of the earth to where our hidden resources lie buried. But there is yet another way by which atomic energy may revolutionize this same industry. Eventually radiation may be employed to produce completely new kinds of fuels and lubricants. These engineers are preparing an experimental device in which crude oil can be maintained under conditions similar to those in a full-scale refinery. In a few minutes this test apparatus will be exposed to radiation from an atomic reactor built expressly for this type of research. The reactor is constructed like a swimming pool half of which can be drained while the operators prepare the experiment. After the test device has been firmly anchored to a movable rack it too is covered with water. Experiment is moved into position next to the reactor's uranium core. When the chain reaction starts atomic bombardment will literally tear apart the petroleum molecules. But this change in molecular structure may lead to better fuels in your automobile. Everything is in readiness for the test. Control equipment is switched on and the reactor comes to light. We will be watching atomic fission. As the speed of the chain reaction increases the core begins to glow. It grows brighter and brighter as its penetrating stream of neutrons strike home. Though no one can foretell the exact results of this particular experiment one fact is clear. It is through research such as we see here that our greatest hope for the atom will be realized. And in a free country with a free enterprise economy there are no bounds to what man's creative ingenuity can accomplish. Already atomic energy can bring us electric power, cure disease and relieve suffering, help raise our food, produce our material goods, make our homes more comfortable and our communities more prosperous. Yes, the atom has come to town. This has been a presentation of the Library of Congress. Visit us at loc.gov.