ATOMIC ENERGY CAN BE A BLESSING

this looks like a normal medical scene but it isn't it's it's atomic energy at work as a blessing and this looks like what it is Devastation due to an atomic blast must atomic energy lead only to destruction like this or can it be used as it is here a blessing to mankind here is Fred McMurray with an answer to that question hello everybody I'm Fred McMurray you have just seen some pictures showing the devast stating destruction of atomic energy and also some pictures showing that atomic energy can be a force for good and these are just a few of the wonderful and until recently secret Motion Picture scenes which we are going to show you I think I'm an average American citizen uh like most of you and when I hear the word atom I immediately think of the word bomb which shows you how very little I know about atomic energy but I've been asked to come here by father Keller the founder of the Christopher movement and uh to help him in presenting this film and so here I am and now Father James Keller thank you very much Fred for being with us father uh tell me H how did you ever happen to get interested in atomic energy well there's a great story behind that it's an instance of what one person can do one day a man in the atomic energy field dropped in here at our office and said that he heard we were going to make 30 pictures 30 Christopher pictures to get people of quality into the fields it count your just to make one on atomic energy and I looked at him I I I wondered how we could ever do that and he didn't pay any attention to my protesting and he said uh well if you do if you can show that this power is from God and it can be used for research and medicine and agriculture indust and countless other ways it may uh have a great effect and benefiting mankind for the future and you said if you don't or some movement like yours doesn't most of us may be blasted off the face of the Earth well he couldn't have put it any stronger could he it fight me at first but then uh I got over the shock quickly and then I saw it a tremendous challenge even if you could have the smallest most insignificant part in changing this power from destruct to a constructive force and use it as God intended as a benefit man for mankind that'd be a thrill so uh we started right away to get into it and I've been more of fiddling around ever since trying to get scripts everything else and I think we've just about hit it so we plan not uh only to do one film we'd like to do about two or three films on atomic energy well I think now we ought to get into the picture bring it to the Friends friend this is Hal Gibney I will act as your guide as we look at these atomic energy pictures which Fred McMurray and father Keller just spoke to you about you are now looking at scientists at work at a most vital function in atomic energy the production of what is known as radioactive materials it looks big and confusing and kind of complicated doesn't it well for the average person not steeped in scientific knowledge it is complicated but we don't intend in these pictures to try to explain the miracle of atomic energy we hope to show only how this god-given force can be used as a blessing for example let us look in on a famous cancer research hospital and get a close look at atomic energy working as a benefit for mankind this girl is suffering from one of Mankind's most dreaded diseases cancer she has cancer of the thyroid gland a few years ago this would have meant her case was hopeless unless radical surgery was used this glass looks like it has plain water in it it but actually it contains hope hope in the form of a radioactive iodin solution most people know that iodin is used in treating thyroid but let's explain where this radioactive business comes in by splitting the atoms of iodin you get the radioactive iodin solution the girl is drinking here we see the young lady on the examination table suppose instead of the radioactive solution she had swallowed a tiny wristwatch if you could listen closely enough you could hear a ticking in her throat the little bit of atomic energy in that solution starts sending out signals from her throat in somewhat the same way as the ticking of the watch the apparatus suspended above her neck is picking up the so-called ticking so the radio active solution produced by atomic study is helping the doctor in his efforts to help the girl you can imagine how thrilled she is to know that there is one more Ray of Hope for her let us look at the many places in America where for many years thousands have worked in the field of atomic energy here is the main headquarters of the atomic energy Commission in Washington DC branching out from the central headquarters is a vast network of projects this is the Brook Haven National Laboratory in Upton New York where one of our greatest atomic furnaces is located at the Hanford works in the state of Washington a tremendous program in health physics is underway and this is the plant industry station at Beltsville Maryland they're using atomic energy to learn more about growth and nutrition of plants in connectivity New York at the nolles atomic power laboratory scientists are studying how atomic energy can be used for power here is Oak Ridge laboratory where the radioactive iodin came from that brought the smile of Hope to our girl in the first scenes at the University of California in Los Angeles there is an important project in the deserts of New Mexico at Los Alamos there is another and at New Brunswick New Jersey still another in Idaho there is an important atomic energy testing station finally there is the Argon National Laboratory in Chicago while we are here let us go inside and see a remarkable example of the Ingenuity which man has utilized in dealing with the potentially dangerous forces of atomic energy here is a testing room where various metals and materials are subjected to intense radiation this room is shielded by concrete walls 3 ft thick just think of it a force you can't see or feel and yet it is so powerful it has to be shielded by 3-ft walls in order to handle the materials in this dangerous place the Argon workers have invented a fantastically wonderful pair of artificial hands operated by remote control these robot hands are designed to imitate the seven human motions employed in grasping lifting moving and turning objects here is a man who has practically Four Hands isn't that something you'll note that he has his fingers inserted into metal finger tubes every motion that he makes with his fingers and hands is exactly duplicated through remote control by the mechanical hands inside the testing room he's watching his other pair of hands through a window built of laminated layers of glass to a thickness of 3 feet you are now looking through this 3-ft thick window at the mechanical hands and here is what he is pulling out in each of these containers is a small portion of some element that has just been made Radioactive these are the tracers used in various experiments both in science and in Industry all over the United States in Laboratories and greenh houses in the Open Fields thousands of workers are learning more about how plants grow how they use the materials in the soil from what they find out in experiments such as you see here they'll be able to put fertilizers to better use and so get better crops certainly here is a blessing to Mankind in this field of corn they are stud in the effect of radiation they are learning more and more about corn here is a scientist who for all intents and purposes is a farmer he is taking the pollen from one ear of corn and pouring it into another ear of the same plant this is a plant that has received radiations of atomic energy this experiment will help to show the effect of radiation on future generations of corn all these experiments are constructive uses of this dangerous force of course all the efforts in agriculture are not confined to work working with plants alone for example here in this laboratory under the Blazing rays of an artificial sun they are trying to solve the greatest mystery connected with plants how does the green coloring matter of a plant enable it to use carbon dioxide water and sunlight to produce oxygen and plant tissue how does it use the energy of sunlight as a part of its process of growth and produce the food we eat suppose they find out they may be able to grow bigger and better food plants they may even be able to create food elements in the laboratory without the plants more food for a starving World a blessing indeed friends that's just part of the film that you're going to see on this wonderful subject of atomic energy the hopeful side of atomic energy but uh I think you've noticed as it impressed me and I think it's probably uh impressed you the same way that people did this a handful of people have dis discovered uncovered for all of us the positive constructive side of atomic energy as I was telling Mr McMurray a little while ago that in each instance it's emphasis on what one person can do didn't that impress you too Fred it certainly did Father I'll say father uh in your book uh there was a good example of what one person can do I mean the story about the uh school teacher up in Deming Washington Dorothy Massie was in that was right why don't you tell Le about that I'd be delighted uh this story that Fred mentions is a splendid example of what one person can do far removed from the atomic energy field this teacher Dorothy Massie she's 58 years old she teaches science in the Consolidated High School and she's not simply uh taking care of herself or a little area she wants to make the world better for being in it besides tackling atomic energy she's does many other things she works from morning till night during this summer she's doing all sorts of things over the weekend she's teaching at the Baptist Sunday school and she just can't do enough to to help others well uh in her class in science she tried to get over to the teenagers that they too could play a part in making atomic energy uh a god-given help to mankind she emphasized what they could do what can be done by through research and medicine agriculture industry and all these various fields and she thought that maybe some of them would pick up this idea and go into this important sphere of influence well what happened uh several of her graduates have uh uh gone into the field of atomic energy and one of them uh won a a prize a national prize for science for All America teenager and they told me when I was at the atomic energy Commission in Washington that this young lad may be one of the great scientists of America in the future why because not only does he have uh dis disposition towards science but above that he has a spiritual sense that's going to restrain it and use it for the advantage of mankind Dorothy Massie has given a heartening example to all of us it's one more instance of what one person can do wouldn't it be a great thing father if there were just one Dorothy Massie in each town and city in the country why the whole future peacetime development of atomic energy would be assured that's right and I think it'll be pointed out to you folks in the rest of the films that you're about to see now let us look at some more of the atomic energy films here we are at the famous Oak Ridge atomic energy project what are the technicians doing here well it's a long complicated and highly technical story I do want to point out however that one of these technicians could well be that student described by father Keller in his story about the wonderful school teacher from the state of Washington as for what is going on in this scene well they're cooking up more of those atomic substances which are called radioactive materials the radioactive substance you see being made right now may be the same substance which is being utilized in this next medical scene it doesn't seem very interesting but believe it or not you are saying a bunch of atoms drawing their own picture every tick of a radioactive atom causes the PIN in the instrument to jiggle as it passes over the chart this is an important function let's see it in action this gentleman may have cancer of the thyroid gland he's drinking the same kind of iodin solution that the young lady drank and just as it did in her case the iodin goes to the thyroid gland and concentrates in the cancer tissue but this time they put this instrument to work this is atomic energy as God intended it to be used the instrument is up so that as the machine moves back and forth above his thyroid gland the pen moves across the chart the signal sent out by the radioactive iodin or run through another instrument and made strong enough to wiggle the pin and there you are a picture of the patient's thyroid gland showing exactly where the iodin is concentrated the change in pattern tells the doctor whether or not the patient has cancer and where it is then treatment can start some of the treatment may not be by atomic energy but atomic energy is a means of diagnosis of finding out the truth and perhaps at the same time stopping the spread of cancer now let us look at another field where atomic energy is at work as a blessing farm animals you are watching an atomic energy experiment in nutrition for example the hen you see here is being fed a special breakfast I would say about $11 of radioactive carbon and phosphorus what's it all about well the radioactive atoms in the carbon and phosphorus can be easily traced and in that way we see how a hen makes use of them in building an egg from the findings of the scientists better egg production in the future can be assured here we see Atomic scientists who might even be called Cowboys they have just given the Husky steer in the picture an injection of radioactive iodin this is researched to give us better and healthier beef animals here's another experiment with farm animals with sheep the Sheep are eating cubes of food containing radioactive elements of various kinds it doesn't harm the Sheep but it gives us a means of finding out how to build better lamb chops and mutton for the future now let us look at another scene of atomic energy at work as a possible Lifesaver this time we are going to look at a radioactive substance called gallium even though the gallium substance you see being handled is going to be put into a patient's body the laborat worker must be extremely careful in his handling of it after all he handles the stuff day in and day out and he must be careful not to come into too close contact with it that is why it is shielded by thick bricks and why he handles it at the end of a piece of twine when this man was brought to the cancer research hospital his case was extremely serious he had a cancer of the chest it was spreading in spite of all ordinary treatment his condition finally came to the attention of one of the the 22 Southern medical schools that cooperate with the atomic energy commission's Oakridge Institute of nuclear studies in operating this hospital he readily agreed to being given an experimental shot of radioactive gallium the doctors want to know if the powerful Rays from this element being dripped into the man's blood will help this type of cancer there it goes drip drip drip every drop is a soldier in a new kind of army an army that is fighting with God against the forces of disease this man needs all the help he can get from those little particles of radioactive gallium week after week this battle went on now let us see the result you might think the patient is worse because he's on the operating table actually this is another step in his fight against cancer the fight in which he now has an AE in atomic energy thanks to the signals the gallium sends out the doctors have been able to pinpoint the cancer this man has leukemia his body is not manufacturing enough red blood cells up until lately this disease has been almost always fatal but now thanks to atomic energy it can be detected a lot earlier the earlier they start treating it the more hope of a cure experiments such as these may eventually give more hope for a reprieve from a death sentence thanks to atomic energy in these films we have concentrated to a large extent on atomic energy as a blessing in the field of medicine but let us emphasize again that atomic energy is already serving Mankind in many ways for example already atomic energy is being used to measure engine wear under different lubrication conditions and thus to develop new engine oils to study how corrosion occurs for example in telephone poles and thus to develop ways of preventing it to study the process by which gasoline may be produced synthetically from coal and oil and thus to find ways of improving it to propel ships at Sea with plants powered by atomic energy to study tire wear and thus to develop better tires and to study nutritional deficiencies in humans and animals and find ways to correct them yes this is atomic energy at work not as a force for evil but as a Force for good at work as God intended it to be and in this field so many many more people people of Good Will and High character are needed to supplement the Pres and great Army of workers men and women of all professions And Trades are needed to name a few plant guards and Security Police Radiologists both men and women statisticians to handle scientific data both men and women with executive ability file clerks like this young lady plant Engineers construction workers for new projects nuclear scientists of many fields biochemists are needed too and meteorologists to get atmospheric data yes as you have seen by these pictures atomic energy can be a blessing well I know all of you must have gotten the same thrill out of seeing this film that I did when I saw it I don't know of anything that I've seen that's given me such hope for the future father I want to thank you for asking me to take a part in this well Fred I am grateful that I had any part in it uh in conveying this to our audience because I know many of them live in a certain fear of this great power that could and can be a blessing uh I can't emphasize to you and the audience uh too much or too pointedly that each one of you can play a part in this countless people may be needed in the field of atomic energy people all the way from uh typists up to scientists technicians uh maybe one of you could get into this field but if you can't take an interest in it try to make the world better for your being into it remember the that atomic energy is a blessing that God has put into our hands it's like fire it can be used to uh cook your dinner or it can be used to burn down your House burn down your home and all your belongings everything that you have but you have it in your power to make this a blessing not a curse a atomic energy can be a great help to The World God bless you every one of you this is a presentation of the Christophers