A.E.C. Operation Redwing. EG&G Participation in Off-Continent Nuclear Tests
HEE-FV-162

Date:
1956
Location:
Eniwetok [or: Enewetak] Atoll (Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean)
Image(s):
Color
Sound(s):
Silent
Maker:
Harold E. Edgerton, P. Chapski
Film type:
16mm
Run time:
12:49
People:
Bill MacRoberts, Harold E. Edgerton, P. Chapski
These informal clips of EG&G, Inc. (Edgerton, Germeshausen and Grier, Inc.) participants and their families were filmed by Harold E. Edgerton in 1956 during “Operation Redwing,” an American series of nuclear tests conducted in 1956 on Eniwetok Atoll (Marshall Islands) by the Atomic Energy Commission. Edgerton and his EG&G colleagues were closely involved in the project which included experimental high-speed photography research. Activities filmed include life and work around the military base, canoe-paddling and viewing local wildlife. Men are shown preparing and adjusting high-speed camera arrays of Edgerton’s Rapatronic shutter camera, in preparation for the nuclear test pictures.

Tagged: atomic bomb, Atomic Energy Commission, detonation, EG&G, Eniwetok, high speed photography, high-speed, military, Nuclear, Operation Redwing, Rapatronic

TIME CODEDESCRIPTION
00:00:01 Introductory information: film title, synopsis, date, run time.
00:00:08 Film begins.
00:00:12 [Titles] “A.E.C. Operation Redwing / EDGERTON, GERMESHAUSEN & GRIER, INC. / BOSTON MASSACHUSETTS / LAS VEGAS, NEVADA”
00:00:19 [Titles] “A More Informal Glimpse of EG&G Participation in the Off-Continent Nuclear Tests of 1956”
00:00:27 [Titles] “Photographed in the Field by Harold E. Edgerton. Edited by P. Chapski”
00:00:31 Several men (including Bill MacRoberts in dark shirt?) nail shut and paint over a container prepared for transport.
00:01:07 An airplane takes off.
00:01:10 Esther Edgerton holds a luau outside an airport with many other people.
00:01:15 Watching Pan American airplane taxi to arrival point # 6.
00:01:26 A woman runs from the airplane steps to be greeted by a man who puts a luau around her neck and hugs her. The man and woman point to the cameraman (presumably Harold Edgerton) and wave.
00:01:38 Esther Edgerton (in a grey dress) puts another luau around the neck of the young woman.
00:01:42 The man and woman walk up stairs with suitcases and wave.
00:01:49 The woman gets into a car.
00:01:51 Esther and another woman in bathing suits join two men on beach; they practice the motions of paddling an outrigger canoe while still on the beach.
00:02:05 Several men push the canoe with women paddlers into the water and paddle away off the shore. The canoe is paddled around, and rapidly approaches the shore. The canoe is beached, stern first. People haul the canoe up onto the beach. Harold Edgerton approaches the cameraman.
00:03:09 A car is driven up to Hawaiian Village Hotel.
00:03:14 Shots are taken from the moving car. A shot of an airplane.
00:03:25 A person unloads luggage from the car trunk.
00:03:31 Harold Edgerton with his wife Esther (left) and another woman stand in front of a sign, “MATS Terminal”. Harold puts a luau around the other woman’s neck and kisses her.
00:3:34 Aerial views from an airplane of the seaside, and camp barracks / tents [?].
00:03:40 Several men get onto a small boat with a lowered stern transom.
00:03:50 Men on board the boat drink coffee and watch the sea while under way.
00:04:00 Back on land, men show their IDs to an officer.
00:04:03 Close-up of street signs: Los Alamos Lane and Argonne Road.
00:04:06 Street sign: Sandia Road.
00:04:10 Large triangular structure with sign (“Too Many Blind … [?])
00:04:13 Shirtless men stand around by a porch as Edgerton approaches and shakes their hands.
00:04:20 Aquarium: a stonefish swims around, settles down, gobbles up a little fish and then spits him out. A needle fish, crab, lobster and seahorse are shown.
00:05:24 A man removes a lobster from the fish tank.
00:05:38 A military base with tents and jeeps and corrugated metal housing.
00:05:44 Men exit from a building of corrugated metal.
00:05:50 A dump truck drives past.
00:05:54 Shot of a low building and parked jeeps.
00:05:57 Palm trees and sky.
00:06:00 A wooden sign attached to q metal building reads “EG&G Inc.” and has a wooden mask above it.
00:06:07 Men coming from the EG&G building, load gear into a jeep, wave and drive away.
00:06:28 A man writes on a blackboard, another man gives instructions, and another man writes on a bulletin (briefing room).
00:06:51 A jeep arrives at the EG&G building and picks up passengers.
00:07:10 Men in a jeep by a tower. The jeep drives away. Two men climb stairs up the (observation?) tower.
00:07:30 Two shirtless men make adjustments on an array of (Rapatronic?) cameras set up for photographing nuclear explosions.
00:07:54 Two men holding papers examine settings on camera equipment. A film canister (?) is mounted on the camera assembly.
00:08:10 A man in Hawaiian shirt and glasses looks through viewfinder of camera set-up. Movie camera pans to show intricate array of cameras set up for explosion pictures.
00:08:19 Man wearing glasses and a Hawaiian shirt adjusts the equipment settings.
00:08:28 View out to the seaside from behind the camera set-up.
00:08:33 Several panoramic views of the seaside, dock, ship, equipment on dock, ships moored out at sea, and campsite; possibly filmed from the top of the viewing tower.
00:08:40 A man goes into an elevator with camera equipment and goes up to the top of the viewing tower.
00:08:59 A man adjusts camera equipment, and peers through a viewfinder attached to a huge cylinder [lens?] (ca. 1 foot in diameter).
00:09:13 Two men adjust camera equipment settings.
00:09:20 A man holds a red jug to catch water leak from the ceiling (?)
00:09:31 A shot of dripping water and condensation on the walls (?) and other equipment.
00:09:46 Shot of viewing tower from a distance. A man clambers around big bushes in the foreground and points out a white fledgling bird that tries to bite his finger.
00:10:10 Lizard on a tree trunk.
00:10:13 Palm tree.
00:10:16 Two men monitor and adjust camera equipment.
00:10:46 View out to sea from the camera position.
00:10:54 A man adjusts large cylindrical camera equipment.
00:10:57 A man opens a small container and places inside it a thick transparent rectangular device that resembles a microscope slide.
00:11:08 Two men pull sandwiches out of a cardboard box and sit to eat with coffee mugs, surrounded by equipment.
00:11:25 Close-up of the white fledgling bird on the tree stump.
00:11:29 Flying sea gulls (?).
00:11:34 A man holds and examines a sea slug by rocky beach shallows, and shows off seashells (cowries?).
00:11:58 Two men look through sea puddles and collect things (shells?)
00:12:13 A truck is driven directly from the beach onto a pontoon-like ferryboat that then motors away off shore.
00:12:49 Film ends.
00:12:53 2010 MIT credits.

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