Ah… nuclear gadgets. The algorithm clearly knows that this kind of device obsesses me, and again it sent me to the Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity to admire the Nu-Klear Fallout Detector. As its name suggests, it is a "radioactive rain detector", which used balls charged with static electricity. In other words, you had to shake the detector vigorously, and hope the balls never fell…
The "Cuban Missile Crisis" lasted from October 14 to 28, 1962. Some sources move its start two days and speak of the 16th, but the first report that confirmed the presence of Soviet missiles emerged on the morning of the 14th. The US armed forces entered DEFCON 3, and on October 24, SAC (Strategic Air Command) escalated to DEFCON 2, a condition that lasted until November 15.
In other words, few times we were so close to blowing up… and some saw that chaos of "Cold-War-About-To-Become-Hot" as a business opportunity. That's how we arrive at the Nu-Klear Fallout Detector, a curious device presented by the Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity.
Nu-Klear Fallout Detector: 'We have a Geiger counter at home'
How exactly does it work? The detector measures 3.75 inches (9.52 centimeters) in diameter at its base, and 2.5 inches (6.35 centimeters) high. In the center is a small transparent tube with about 40 red balls. When you shake the detector, these balls receive a static charge, and they stick to the wall of the cylinder. Their exposure to a radioactive environment increases the ionization of the air inside the detector, thus reducing the charge on the balls, and causing them to fall to the bottom of the cylinder. The faster the balls fall, the higher the radiation level.
The museum explains that the detector was manufactured by "Minutemen Industries Inc." of Chicago, but the box talks about "Alodan Corporation" in Springfield, Illinois, and another unit mentions "The Dr. Henry L. Richter Corp. Nu-Klear Div. Dept." in Pasadena, California. Two names also emerge: Leo Hoegh and Henry Richter.
Hoegh was governor of Iowa from '55 to '57, then became chief of the FCDA (you know, these guys) until July '58, and later became director of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, which absorbed the FCDA. The museum says that Hoegh was the first to manufacture the Nu-Klear Fallout Detector between 1962 and 1967. However, Dr. Henry Richter indicates in his autobiography that he bought the patent and steel molds from Hoegh, to commercialize some units.
The result? A failure. It didn't receive a single order during its initial marketing tests, and in the end he ended up selling "a few hundred" detectors. What happened to the molds, the patent, and the unsold units? Nobody knows. The Nu-Klear Fallout Detector was joined by similar products like the Prolastic X-Ray Detector, and DIY devices, among which the Gamma Gauge and the Failla Cocktail stand out.
Source: Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity. Images: ShopDakotaRelics on Etsy
