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The Nuclear Bomb Effects Computer (NBEC) was created as an aide to quickly determine the effects of a nuclear explosion on people and environment. It was based on the 1962 report describing the physical damage, fire and heat, and nuclear radiation associated with the explosion of atomic bombs, elaborated by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, under the direction of Samuel Glasstone, and published by the US Atomic Energy Commission.
The NBEC was designed by the Lovelance Foundation and manufactured in the United States by the J. B. Carroll Company of Chicago. fabricated all plastic, it was composed of four concentric independent circular rules, with a total of 19 scales to calculate, given yield (Amount of energy released when a nuclear weapon is detonated, expressed as a tons of TNT: kilotons or megatons), and the range (horizontal distance from the point of explosion):
I. Blast Parameters:
Maximum Over-pressure
Maximum Dynamic Pressure
Maximum Wind
Arrival time of the Blast Wave
Duration of the positive-pressure phase of the blast wave
II. Reflected Overpressure
III. Translational velocities for Man and Window Glass
IV. Thermal Radiation
V. Initial Nuclear Radiation
VI. Early Fallout Dose Rate
VII. Crater Dimensions
VIII. Maximum Fireball Radius and Maximum Height of Burst for Negligible Early Fallout
Most of these terms require some kind of explanation, which is out of the scope of a brief description. All these are explained in the book The Effects of Nuclear Weapons (linked below).
The NBEC was an artifact created at the very heart of the Cold War, and made available to population. In 1962, the mentioned book had a price of $3.00 (~$26.00 now) and the NBEC had a price of $1.00 (~$8.40 now).
Hera is the quick reference for the use of the NBEC:
NBEC-QuickRef.pdfHere is the 1977 reprint of the source book of this computer: The Effect of the Nuclear Weapons, compiled and edited by Samuel Glasstone and Philip J. Dolan.
The_Effects_of_Nuclear_Weapons-1977.pdfHere is a link to a very interesting website developed by John Walker (Autodesk Inc. founder) talking about the Nuclear Bomb Effect Computer. Here can be found a simulator of the use of this slide rule.
The next link to the Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Museum Library, shows the Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Museum Collection section of Nuclear Slide Rules.
https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/sliderules/sliderules.htm
Here is the entry for the Smithsonian national Air and Space Museum:
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