With the growing Civil Defense efforts, opportunities emerged for businesses to produce and sell products related to mandate for “preparedness.” Construction companies began advertising private shelters, everyday items were sold with the Civil Defense logo, and more specialized equipment and literature addressed the specific issues that developed out of the Atomic Age and the Cold War. ​

Murray & Gee Publishing/Culver Products Co.

          One growing desire within the public’s imagination, was to understand what to expect in the event of a nuclear war. In addition to Civil Defense publications, a number of scientific, and pseudo-scientific, sources began producing “survival manuals,” drawing on much of the information learned during early atomic tests. In 1950, the Culver City publishing company, Murray & Gee, published a 55-page booklet entitled, Atomic Attack: A Manual for Survival.  The manual was sold and distributed by the Culver Products Company, and co-authored by John Calderston Jr., a former physicist at Oak Ridge atomic energy plant, and Dr. Gordon W. Hewes, an anthropology professor at USC. At times, the manual appears to be written much like a novel, as a hypothetical narrative leads the reader through the experience of witnessing an atomic attack. At other times, the manual provides a clinical description of what to do before, during, and after an attack, as well as diagrams for building your own “refuge room,” and lists of items that should be inside.
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          Atomic Attack was sponsored by the Council on Atomic Implications, Inc. of the University of Southern California, which was organized as non-profit educational corporation. Although not affiliated with the Federation of Atomic Scientists, it was often referred to in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists- the publication that introduced “The Doomsday Clock,” a symbolic clock face that “counted down” relative to the threat of a nuclear catastrophe. According to the Bulletin, the CAI was “…composed mainly of veterans of the University of Southern California,” who were, “less inhibited than scientists, and this has permitted them to develop some very effective educational techniques, while at the same time taking care to stick very closely with the facts”  (1948).

​          The Council attempted to lead the attempts at public information concerning the atomic warfare and energy.  The relationship between Murray & Gee publishing and The Council on Atomic Implications also resulted in a two-part series on atomic energy entitled Atoms at Work, which included articles on the “Power from the Atom” (Part One), written by Lee Dunbridge, and “Atomic Energy Benefits-Radioisotopes” (Part Two) by Dr. Paul C. Abersold. Both parts were published in 1950, the same year as Atomic Attack. However, the publications sponsored by the council were not always effective.  The following is a review of Atomic Attack:
3631 Eastham Drive
Culver City, CA
Picture
Courtesy of the Charles E. Young Research Library. UCLA.

Jordon Electronic Manufacturing Co.

PictureJordan Civil Defense Meter. Courtesy of the Museum of Oak Ridge Associated Universities.
          Specific to the advent of nuclear weapons, technical devices for the detection of radiation became a a necessary aspect of preparation.  Just as food and water were a requirement of every private and public shelter, radiation detection was seen not only as a device for survival, but a necessary piece of equipment in the rebuilding of the nation after a nuclear attack. Geiger Counters, and similar devices, were an essential item of any preparation handbook, like Atomic Attack,  and local organizations and colleges offered training classes on their use.  

          At the urging of Civil Defense officials and literature, a raising demand for these devices led many small electronics companies to produce components for major manufacturers like the Victoreen Instrument Company, as well as parts that would be used for their routine maintenance. In Culver City, one of these companies was the Jordan Electronic Manufacturing Company.  
PictureJordan Civil Defense V-710 Model 2.
          According to the 1961 annual report of the Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, "The Jordan Electronics Division of the Victoreen Instrument Co. produced new prototype shelter survey meters following redesign of an existing prototype radiological remote-reading shelter survey meter."  In addition to making replacement parts for Geiger counters, Jordan produced a small device for Civil Defense that detected Roentgens- a unit for measuring ionizing radiation. While most devices are identified by a recognizable name or model number, this one has neither, but is marked as being made in Culver City.  Jordan Electronic Mfg. Co. either moved to, or had another location in Alhambra, where it produced the more well-known CD V-710 Model 2, also known as the Jordan Model 2. The effectiveness of these devices depended upon the material assumed to be used in an attack (uranium or plutonium, and on the method of detonation.   By the 1980's many of the earlier designs from the 1950s and 1960s had been determined obsolete compared to the advancement of fission and fusion weapons.
. Museum of Oak Ridge Associated Universities. 1999.
Gotlieb, Albert. “The Council on Atomic Implications” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; Feb. 1950, Vol. 6 Issue 2, pp. 61. 
“Notes of the Changing Times”. Changing Times: The Kiplinger Magazine March 1951, p 46, 
​Meier, Richard. “What Should Atomic Scientists Do Now?” . Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Feb. 1948, pp. 81-82.