1. Harry Daghlian accidentally irradiated himself on August 21,1945, during a critical mass experiment at the remote Omega Site of the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico and died 25 days later from the resultant radiation poisoning.
12 Facts About Harry Daghlian
1. 2.
Harry Daghlian's father was an ethnic Armenian from Gaziantep in what is Turkey.
3.
Harry Daghlian had a sister, Helen, and a brother, Edward.
4.
Harry Daghlian was educated at Harbor Elementary School, where he played violin in the school orchestra, and at Bulkeley High School.
5.
Harry Daghlian then commenced work on his doctorate, assisting Marshall Holloway with the cyclotrons.
6.
Harry Daghlian was moving the final brick over the assembly, but neutron counters alerted Daghlian to the fact that the addition of that brick would render the system supercritical.
7.
Harry Daghlian reacted immediately after dropping the brick and attempted to knock the brick off the assembly without success.
8.
Harry Daghlian was forced to disassemble part of the tungsten-carbide pile in order to halt the reaction.
9.
Harry Daghlian fell into a coma and died 25 days after the accident.
10.
Harry Daghlian was the first known fatality caused by a criticality accident.
11.
Harry Daghlian's body was returned to New London, where he was buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery.
12.
Louis Slotin, a colleague of Harry Daghlian's, was killed in 1946 while performing criticality tests on the same plutonium core.