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The Atomic Age was a phrase used for a time in the 1950s in which it was believed that all power sources in the future would be atomic in nature. After the atomic bomb rendered all conventional explosives redundant and nuclear power plants did the same for power sources such as coal and oil, there was a general feeling that everything would use a nuclear power source of some sort. This even included cars, leading Ford to display the Ford Nucleon concept car to the public in 1958.
Normally reputable experts predicted that thanks to the giant nuclear power stations of the near future electricity would soon become as cheap as water, or even cheaper, and that electrical meters would be removed.
Lew Kowarski, a former director of CERN, even recalled such references as Atomic cocktail waitresses.
By the mid-1960s the dimmer aspects of the Atomic Age had become clear, leading eventually to the massive anti-nuclear demonstrations of the 1970s and '80s.
Related articles
Agricultural Age, Industrial Age, Information Age, Space Age, Atomic Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Stone Age, The Enlightenment
External links:
- Ford Nucleon (http://www.velocityjrnl.com/jrnl/1958/vmd1210ov.html)
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