JF Ptak Science Books    Quick Post  (Part of a Series on the History of Atomic and Nuclear Weapons)

This arresting image is a still from an extraordinary and scary 1946 film “One World or None” (published by the National Committee on Atomic Information and located (here)  held at the Prelinger Archive. It shows video graphics of New York City (and Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco) being attacked and bombed with atomic weapons.  The unfolding darkness very effectively shows the reach and extent of damage associated with each single explosion, and makes an effective and chilling point about the control of atomic weapons. (I’ve also included the particulars for renting and showing the film from  a short one-page notice in the journal Atomic Information, published by the L Street D.C. NCAI, published January 20, 1947, volume 2/1.)

It is also part of a continuing sub-series on this blog relating images of antique images showing NYC destroyed, and include the following posts:

• New York City: Attacked by Tentacled Flying Saucers, Giant Flying Snakes, Glaciers, and Mining Missile Space Aliens, 1929-1941 

•   H-Bomb Wipes out Brooklyn

• Bombing Manhattan, 1943: the Nazi “Amerika Bomber” by Eugen Sanger

• Bombing New York City with Women, Meteorites, Nazi Amerika Bombers and Atomic Weapons

• More of NYC Destroyed in Explorations of the Future–“The Last American”, 1889

and others, including a few posts that shows Manhattan sinking under its own weight, floating in the air, and set adrift in the Hudson. 

 And here is a detail of Manhattan as ground zero from the Sanger paper:

And Manhattan being hit by multiple atomic weapons (from this post):