The Effects of Nuclear Weapons

The citation information for this paperback book is: Samuel Glasstone, ed., The Effects of Nuclear Weapons, rev. ed., a special report prepared at the request of the Department of Defense and published by the Atomic Energy Commission (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1962).

In order to anticipate the physical damage and personal injuries that would result from a nuclear attack, and thus to encourage emergency responders and public officials to prepare themselves, numerous federal agencies joined together in 1957 to release information about the energy released in a nuclear explosion. An updated report was completed in 1962. Chemist and technical writer Samuel Glasstone (1897–1986) guided both efforts, as well as a third revision (with Philip J. Dolan) that appeared in 1977.

The 1962 edition has a pocket at the back for a Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer, a circular slide rule that allowed users to make computations of blast effects, given various combinations of conditions based on data from the book. The pocket in this copy has an instruction sheet but not the instrument, which sold separately for $1.00 in addition to the book's price of $3.00. See 1990.0688.01 for a computer received from another source.

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