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Re: ignitron tubes
Tesla List wrote:
>
> >From music-at-triumf.caWed Jun 26 22:15:43 1996
> Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1996 00:50:49 PST
> From: "Fred W. Bach, TRIUMF Operations" <music-at-triumf.ca>
> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> Cc: music-at-triumf.ca
> Subject: Re: ignitron tubes
>
> >From bigr-at-teleport-dot-comTue Jun 25 22:01:57 1996
> >Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 13:29:26 -0700
> >From: bigr-at-teleport-dot-com
> >To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> >Subject: Re: ignitron tubes
> Fred W wrote:
>
> 25 years later, on TV I recognized these same tubes as being part
> of the body of evidence that the USA used to prove that IRAQ (?)
> was trying to build a nuclear weapon. Apparently these little
> thyratrons are used in the trigger circuit. The TV program
> suggested there was no other use for these little devices, but I
> certainly know that's not true. But I also doubt Iraq was doing
> conductance-cell research.
>
> Fred W. Bach , Operations Group | Internet: music-at-triumf.ca
> TRIUMF (TRI-University Meson Facility) | Voice: 604-222-1047 loc 6327/7333
> 4004 WESBROOK MALL, UBC CAMPUS | FAX: 604-222-1074
> University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., CANADA V6T 2A3
>
Fred, All I wrote a rather extensive writeup about four month ago on
this list about why the ignitrons nor thyratrons couldn't be used for
Tesla service.
Fred's note on the little tubes found in posession of Iraq were, indeed,
nuclear bomb triggers. They were invented by EG&G (called Krytrons) and
can handle about 5 amps for pulses only. The classic and stock tube is
the #KD21. These are trigger tubes and not classic thyratons. They are
designed to turn on and off in a few nanoseconds only!! ( A full
microsecond is equal to an eternity in Krytron speak.) They are rarely
bigger than an accorn and all contain a radioactive gas, usually Krypton,
to assist in pre-ionization triggering speed up. They have always been a
specialty tube with the bulk of production used in nuclear initiators.
They are too fast and far to whimpy for any Tesla work. I found a
surplus source for these little microtubes at $40.00 a pop. Beware, the
krypton decays and the tubes go sloppy with age.
More trivia to transmit
Richard Hull, TCBOR