Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization · Exhibit FS-01

The Family
Fallout Shelter

An interactive edition of the 1959 handbook, priced for 1961.

The bomb misses you. The dust does not. This booklet is about the dust.

Fallout is dirt and debris pulled up by the burst, made intensely radioactive, and dropped back downwind over hundreds of miles. It collects on roofs and streets like gray snow and it burns without heat. In 1961 the government's answer was mass, time, and distance: put shielding between your family and the dust, and stay behind it while the radiation dies away. Sixty million of these booklets went out. This one works.

1Where you stand decides the dose

Protection factor is the booklet's one number: how many times the shielding cuts the outside dose. Click a position.

Basement corner

PROTECTION FACTOR 15

67 of every 1,000 roentgens outside reaches you here.

Below grade, earth on two sides. The booklets put a home basement at 10 to 20. Pick the corner, stay low.

Mass is mass. Each thickness below cuts fallout gamma in half, and every halving stacks on the last one.

Material	Halves the dose every
Steel	0.7"
Concrete	2.4"
Brick	2.8"
Packed earth	3.6"
Water	4.8"
Wood	8.8"

2Stock the shelter

Plan for two weeks with no help from outside. Water first: two quarts a day per person, drinking only. Set the family size and work the list.

Persons in shelter4

0 of 10 stocked · 14 days

Water28 gallons2 quarts a day, drinking only. More if you can store it.
Canned and sealed food56 person-days of foodMeats, fruits, vegetables, juices. Things you will actually eat cold.
Survival crackers4 tinsThe federal shelter biscuit. Keeps for years.
Battery radio1 per shelterTune CONELRAD: 640 or 1240 on the dial. Official word comes there.
Spare batteries2 setsFor the radio and the flashlight both.
Flashlight or electric lantern1 per shelterNo candles if you can help it. They eat your air.
First aid kit1 per shelterAnd the family's prescription medicines.
Covered pail, plastic bags1 setThe toilet. Sealed bags, tight lid. This one matters by day three.
Blankets and bedding4The shelter runs cold underground.
Can opener, utensils, paper plates1 setA manual opener. Two of them.

3When can you come out?

Fallout dies fast, then slow. The rule the booklets taught is 7:10: seven times the hours, one tenth the dose rate. Drag the clock.

Time since detonation

1 hour

H+17 hrs2 days2 weeks

Dose rate: 100.0% of H+1 · 500 R/hr outside at H+1 is now 500.0 R/hr

STAY PUT

The first hours are the worst of it. Nothing outside is worth the dose.

The FamilyFallout Shelter

1Where you stand decides the dose

2Stock the shelter

3When can you come out?

The Family
Fallout Shelter