Word: wilkinson
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Died. John Wilkinson, 83, who in 1902 developed the U.S.'s first efficient air-cooled internal-combustion engine (used only on the now-extinct Franklin), with Henry Ford founded the Society of Automotive Engineers; of arteriosclerosis; in Syracuse...
Last week Colonel Lawrence Wilkinson New York State's new Civil Defense boss, showed that he did not believe an enemy would necessarily be tactically orthodox in planning a bombing assault: he issued a detailed plan for detecting radioactive contamination...
...Wilkinson based his warning on the proposition that an enemy cannot be depended upon to be both rule-bound and militarily efficient. An enemy might explode his bombs on the ground or, particularly in an attack on river-girdled New York City, might set them off under water deliberately sacrificing some of their blast effect. In such cases, radioactive contamination would become a massive problem. The deadly dust or spray drifting slowly downwind would not be obviously dangerous. Its radiation could not be detected by any human sense, and a man might absorb a fatal dose of it before feeling...
...Chalk. According to Wilkinson's plan, each "target city" (seven cities in New York State have been listed as bomb-worthy) would have at least ten radiological reconnaissance teams, dressed in protective clothing, with dust-excluding respirators. In each five-man team, four would have radiation detectors (i.e., Geiger counters or equivalents), the fifth a walky-talky radio for reporting to the control center. Their equipment would be stored at points in a circle around the city, well outside the prime target area...
Besides the radiological reconnaissance teams, says Colonel Wilkinson, each target city should have at least 100 trained men with instruments to detect "personal contamination" (radioactive clothing or skin). There should also be a central laboratory with highly trained personnel for checking instruments and dealing with unforeseen problems...