Berlyn Brixner
Encyclopedia
Trinity test
Trinity was the code name of the first test of a nuclear weapon. This test was conducted by the United States Army on July 16, 1945, in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, at the new White Sands Proving Ground, which incorporated the Alamogordo Bombing...
, the first detonation of a nuclear weapon
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
in July 1945. Brixner was positioned 10000 yards (9,144 m) away from the explosion and had 50 cameras of varying speeds running from different locations to capture the shot in full motion.
Early years
He was born in El Paso, TexasEl Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
on May 21, 1911. His mother had graduated from Western New Mexico University
Western New Mexico University
Western New Mexico University, a public university located in Silver City, New Mexico, has served the people of the state of New Mexico and its surrounding areas as a comprehensive, regional, rural, public coeducational university since 1893 and caters to a student body diverse in age, culture,...
in 1898 and taught school in various small southern New Mexico communities. His father was a power systems engineer for a mining company, and had worked in Chile, Mexico and the Fanny Mine in Mogollon, New Mexico
Mogollon, New Mexico
Mogollon, also called the Mogollon Historic District, is a former mining town located in the Mogollon Mountains in Catron County, New Mexico, in the United States. Located east of Glenwood and Alma, it was founded in the 1880s at the bottom of Silver Creek Canyon to support the gold and silver...
until the Army commandeered its boxcar-size generators at the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
turning Mogollon into a ghost town.
On December 11, 1932, he fell into Kilbourne Hole
Kilbourne Hole
Kilbourne Hole is a maar volcanic crater, located west of the Franklin mountains of El Paso, Texas, in the Potrillo Volcanic Field of Doña Ana County, New Mexico. Nearby Hunt's Hole lies several miles just south of Kilbourne Hole. These holes are rare examples of volcanic action without a...
near Lanark, New Mexico
Lanark, New Mexico
Lanark is a ghost town in Doña Ana County, New Mexico about 30 miles northwest of El Paso, Texas and close to Kilbourne Hole.-History:Lanark had a U.S. Post Office from 1905 until 1923....
and broke his ankle.
Brixner attended the University of Texas for four years without earning a degree, then worked and studied photography under Willis W. Waite, who operated a pathology laboratory in El Paso
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
. In 1936, Brixner worked as a regional photographer with the Soil Conservation Service at its four-state headquarters in Albuquerque
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
. He married his first wife, Betty, around 1940. His two daughters, Annette (born 1942) and Kathleen (born 1943) were born in Albuquerque. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was hired at the Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
to work on photography problems connected with the Manhattan Project in the Optics Engineering and High Speed Photography Group in Los Alamos under the direction of Professor Julian Mack, the group invented and constructed extremely high speed cameras.
Trinity
Brixner was assigned to shoot movies in 16-millimeter black-and-white film, from every angle and distance and at every available speed, of an unknown event beginning with the brightest flash ever produced on Earth. "The theoretical people had calculated a some 10-sun brightness. So that was easy," said Brixner. "All I had to do was go out and point my camera at the sun and take some pictures. Ten times that was easy to calculate."At ignition, Brixter remembers "The whole filter seemed to light up as bright as the sun. I was temporarily blinded. I looked to the side. The Oscura mountains were as bright as day. I saw this tremendous ball of fire, and it was rising. I was just spellbound! I followed it as it rose. Then it dawned on me. I'm the photographer! I've gotta get that ball of fire." He jogged the camera up. He said: "There was no sound! It all took place in absolute silence."
Later years
After the war, he stayed on at Los Alamos National LaboratoryLos Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
until retirement as head of the optical group. In 1956 he married Audrey Chew (1915-1996) who was from Washington, DC. Berlyn Brixner died peacefully in Albuquerque on August 1, 2009. He was 98.
Legacy
His papers are archived at Los Alamos National LaboratoryLos Alamos National Laboratory
Los Alamos National Laboratory is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory, managed and operated by Los Alamos National Security , located in Los Alamos, New Mexico...
. He authored or co-authored over 45 papers describing major developments in camera engineering, optical instrumentation and fabrication techniques. His optical lens design was used to construct a high resolution telescope mounted on the Mariner 1969 and 1970 spacecrafts to Mars. He received the DuPont
DuPont
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
gold medal from the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE , founded in 1916 as the Society of Motion Picture Engineers or SMPE, is an international professional association, based in...
and the Robert Gordon Memorial Award from the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.
Patents
Ultra High Speed Shutter (1953) Continuous Recording High Speed Camera Frame (1954) Wide Angle Optical System Having a Telecentric Stop (1966)See also
- Jack AebyJack AebyJack W. Aeby is an American mechanical engineer most famous for having taken the only well-exposed color photograph of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945 at the Trinity site, New Mexico...
– photographer of the only successful color picture of the Trinity Test.
Further reading
- Robert Del Tredici, At Work in the Fields of the Bomb (Vancouver, B.C. : Douglas & McIntyre, 1987). (Features an extensive interview with Brixner.)