I was corresponding with a colleague about the Operation Ivy clip I posted the other day. He is is very knowledgeable about nuclear weapons policy, more so than I am actually, and in passing mentioned one of the diagnostic devices used in the test: “The ‘bangmeter’ – really!”
Actually, it is the Bhangmeter, with an “H”. “H” as in hashish.
Bhang is a drug reference — no kidding — according to the prologue of William E Ogle, An Account of the the Return to Nuclear Weapons Testing by the United States after the Test Moratorium 1958-1961, NV-291 (Department of Energy, October 1985):
An intense afternoon was spent by the entire Group J-7, with its group leader Fred Reines, early in 1950, picking a name for this world-shaking device that was going to produce simple, cheap and easy yield measurements. At the end of the afternoon, Reines picked a name which we all knew would be misinterpreted for the rest of history. Bhangmeter is not synonymous with bangmeter. Bhang is a variation of Indian hemp, the leaves and seed capsules of which are chewed or smoked, and which produces the same euphoria as other variations of hashish. The now obvious connotation is that we were off our rockers to think that this thing would ever be particularly useful and anyone else who ever believed it must also have a little something wrong with them.
To which my colleague responded “I particularly like the fact that ‘an intense afternoon was spent by the entire group. . . picking a name…’ I think the author forgot the part about the guys ransacking the place in search of munchies.”