Sensi-Tomic and Florida Radiation Company Fall-Out Test Kits (ca. 1961)
The Sensi-Tomic Fallout Test Kit was the brainchild of Albert Roy Davis of Orlando Florida (in his literature, he is described as an "electronic physics engineer").
The kit consists of four 2 1/2" x 2" sheets of film, each of which is covered by aluminum foil. The idea was to coat the top side of one of these with a thin layer of Vaseline or grease and place it out in the open for a few days. The fallout particles (and there were plenty of them in the good old days of above ground testing) would adhere to the film and produce black spots when the film was developed.
The Fall-out Test Kit also came with a screen mesh the purpose of which is not clear. Presumably it was used to reduce a "cloud effect."
Quoting the opening section of the booklet "Knowledge Overcomes Fear" (see photo below): "Today the airways and public press are being filled with confusing and frightening warnings about the invisible terror of atomic fall-out. What are the facts about this threat? Everyone wants to know, and many are asking, "Will it reach me?" A National Educational Program has now been released by the SENSI-TOMIC CORPORATION, of Orlando Florida to reveal the truth about this real but hidden danger. It is threatening all the people of the earth with nervous breakdown in fear of the "pestilence that walketh in darkness (invisible) and the destruction that wasteth at noonday," (atom bombs)."
The photo to the left shows several prints made from developed pieces of film.
Quoting the last section of the booklet: "This educational SENSI-TOMIC FALL-OUT TEST KIT (Copyrighted) is in nowise a gauge to indicate when fall-out is deadly. It is a scientific means to toy with comparative values from week to week for your own education and satisfaction. Soon experience will teach you when the fall-out is increasing or lessening. Additional exposure packs may be obtained from our office. Price 8 packs prepaid for $3.79."
Davis was sufficiently concerned about fallout that he gave his Congressman, Charles Bennett, information about the subject (and probably the SENSI-TOMIC FALL-OUT TEST KIT) and asked him to deliver it to the president unopened. The President didn't see it but the information did make it to Charles Dunham, Director of the Atomic Energy Commission's Division of Biology and Medicine.
Donated by Chuck Roessler.
It would seem that Sensi-tomic Corporation morphed into Florida Radiation(s) Company and changed their location to 23 West Walnut Street, Green Cove Springs, Florida. More likely perhaps, it was the other way around. In any event, the Florida Radiation Co. product, the Atomic Fall Out Laboratory/kit, is shown to the right and below.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, there was plenty of fallout to be seen. But by 1963, above-ground testing in the US had ceased and the market for these kits would have dried up.
