cushion a possible fall. When the bomb reached the top of the tower
without mishap, installation of the explosive detonators began. The
100-foot tower (a surplus Forest Service fire-watch tower) was
designated Point Zero. Ground Zero was at the base of the tower.

As a result of all the anxiety surrounding the possibility of a
failure of the test, a verse by an unknown author circulated around
Los Alamos. It read:

From this crude lab that spawned a dud.
Their necks to Truman's ax uncurled
Lo, the embattled savants stood,
and fired the flop heard round the world.[4]

A betting pool was also started by scientists at Los Alamos on the
possible yield of the Trinity test. Yields from 45,000 tons of TNT to
zero were selected by the various bettors. The Nobel Prize-winning
(1938) physicist Enrico Fermi was willing to bet anyone that the test
would wipe out all life on Earth, with special odds on the mere
destruction of the entire State of New Mexico!

Meanwhile back at the test site, technicians installed seismographic
and photographic equipment at varying distances from the tower. Other
instruments were set up for recording radioactivity, temperature, air
pressure, and similar data needed by the project scientists.

According to Lansing Lamont in his 1965 book Day of Trinity, life at
Trinity could at times be very exciting. One afternoon while
scientists were busily setting up test instruments in the desert, the
tail gunner of a low flying B-29 bomber spotted some grazing antelopes