Vaccum tubes emit electrons.Nuclear triggers must emit neutrons.
The difference is not subtle.
I agree with you. But that is the second reference to the use of a vaccuum tube I've seen. Moreover, the article implied that turning on the Vaccuum Tube was one of the FIRST steps, which is totally counterintuitive since the Manhattan Engineering District's near obsession was with premature release of Neutrons causing a 'fissle', i.e. the device blowing up before sufficient fuel was consumed to release total yield.
I read a book entitled Day of Trinity about thirty years ago about the Trinity test...and the author claimed that the construction of the initiator was the only thing still classified.
But Richard Rhodes [?] in his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb speculates as to its structure, and that Polonium, (the first element the Curies isolated) could have been used. This is indeed a short lived element.
Southack, if the Vaccuum Tube turned on first is accurate, perhaps the designers have solved the 'fissle' problem with explosive assembly of the 'critical mass' in situ.
Vaccum tubes emit electrons.Nuclear triggers must emit neutrons.
The difference is not subtle.