Fate of historic atom smasher unknown

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

A Pittsburgh-area atom smasher said to be the world’s first particle accelerator, was torn down last week after developers said that the brick building at its base could not be saved.

Westinghouse Electric Corporation built the atom smasher in Forest Hills, Pennsylvania in 1937. The Associated Press referred to it as the first industrial nuclear generator in the US. The five-story tall, light bulb-shaped structure had been decommissioned in 1958 and purchased by Gary Silversmith, a Washington DC-based property, in 2013.

While Silversmith was said to be interested in turning the site into rental units, he also told local media that he planned to build a new base for the atom smasher at its current location. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation designated the atom smasher historically significant in 2000.

Physicists working at the Westinghouse facility created nuclear reactions by bombarding target atoms with high-energy particles, the AP said. They accelerated those particles down a vacuum tube from the top of the structure to a pressure vessel 47 feet below, and their efforts helped lead to the discovery of the photo-fission of uranium, a key part of the nuclear power process.

Sliversmith attempted to donate it to the Smithsonian and local history museums, but those efforts were declined due to the size of the unit. The developer said that he would move forward with plans to build residential buildings or storage units on the property, but vowed to keep the historic atom smasher intact.

“We are preserving the bulk of the atom smasher, including the five-story bulb with the large ‘W’ on it,” Silversmith told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “We are going to establish a new concrete base for it, keep it at the site, and have the bulb repainted, including the ‘W’ for Westinghouse.”

“I love history. I think this is an iconic piece of history,” he added. “We demolished the old brick building below it, in part because of its significant disrepair, in part because vandals were entering, and in part because of the estimated repair costs to convert it to a new use were not economically feasible. Also, we had to properly remove asbestos at the site.”

Demolition at the site began approximately one month ago, but the building housing the atom smasher itself was not demolished until last Tuesday. While the area had been recognized by the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, this designation carried no legal protections.

Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation president Arthur Ziegler told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his organization was “unhappy with the loss.” Silversmith expressed hope that the local Woodland Hills School District would “establish a STEM educational facility around the Atom Smasher bulb,” but the budget shortfalls make that unlikely, the newspaper added.

Let’s hope the company keeps its promise of restoration or else they’ll have a bunch of angry science nerds to deal with.

—–

Follow redOrbit on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

redOrbit.com
offers Science, Space, Technology, Health news, videos, images and
reference information. For the latest science news, space news,
technology news, health news visit redOrbit.com frequently. Learn
something new every day.”