32 Point ATOMIC  Initiator Wiring Schematic  - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 11, 2025, 05:09:16 pm
content: Posted by LLNL, wiring diagram purported to be for the Trinity Gadget. (Atomic Bomb)For those who will shriek, there is nothing here the bad people do not already know.Beautiful piece of artwork.This is the co-ax routing from the fast switch to the bridge wire initiators.The pulse source was a specialized gas tube similar to a thyratron with 32 outputs from a circular electrode.How they matched the cable length with 1940s technology has never been disclosed.Steve

author: Ranayna
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 08:33:24 am
content: Quote from: LaserSteve on June 11, 2025, 05:09:16 pmA very naive and low-tech approach could have been to simply determine which cable is the longest, then cut them all to that length, and take care of the routing afterwards.And i agree, just from the artwork standpoint, this drawing is gorgeous. The bomb always was a morbid fascination for me.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 08:50:45 am
content: Quote from: LaserSteve on June 11, 2025, 05:09:16 pmYou mean like the Israelis?QuoteYes it is. Horrible but beautiful.

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 09:41:12 am
content: It is amazing how much effort humans can spend on finding more impressive ways to hurt each other. Imagine if those efforts could go elsewhere! Sadly, I feel as long as bad people exist, it is inevitable that we will be in an arms race to protect ourselves.

author: Haenk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 12:51:28 pm
content: Looks almost like Leonardo did this drawing.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 02:03:23 pm
content: I'd love to see his/her other works. Keep in mind a radial aircraft engine would require similar drafting skill, so I'm sure there were a few symmetry specialists available. Still beautiful in a morbid way. I think that industry loves to tease outsiders with little bits of this and that. Also, publishing some details is probably a means to find talent.Much to my amazement, the company that made the cable clamp listed in the drawing is still in business and making hardware.Steve

author: TimFox
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 04:39:38 pm
content: In late 2007, Lyric Opera of Chicago staged John Adams'Doctor Atomicopera about the Manhattan Project, a co-production with the Netherlands Opera.I was amazed at the accuracy of the prop for "The Gadget", which dominated the stage during its appearances, having compared it with photos of the actual unit.I even recognized the MS3102 military connectors on the many cables connected around the sphere.Before retirement, the whippersnappers at work complained about the MS3102 connectors used on a high-power unit we purchased from a vendor, saying they were old-fashioned.My reply was "We wonthatwar."

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 07:18:23 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on June 12, 2025, 09:41:12 amYes, those "bad people" being the weapons manufacturers, their hired lackeys on Capitol Hill, and all the other merchants of death who keep the perpetual war machine running. Not the dark-skinned (or Slavic-speaking) people whom the bombs rain down on.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 09:14:47 pm
content: More modern widgets evidently use a complex maze of channels milled into a piece of plastic and stuffed with a HE/RTV mix with a controlled burn velocity. So is the speculation. It wraps around the spherical portion and allows for a much more compact unit.From the sketches I've seen, the pattern used would make an RF microstrip designer proud.For safety reasons it still needs fired at two or more points with tight timing,What got me interested, years and years ago, was the movie "The Manhattan Project" with John Lithgow. I'm very sure the 25 mm xenon strobe tubes don't cut the mustard on the timing, as used in the movie. I'm pretty sure the strobe boards used in the movie came from Canal Street's surplus stores as they were all over the place in the late 80s as window dressing. I used to have a few from a summer vacation trip to NY. The movie was filmed in Upstate NY. The SFX guy was headquartered in Manhattan.Years later I had to measure the jitter and pulse width on the short tubes for high-speed photography work at the University. They are actually filled around 740 Torr give or take and the high pressure makes the timing jitter very large.There are some neat Easter Eggs in the movie, too. Especially in the metallurgy scenes.Steve

author: langwadt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 09:31:05 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on June 12, 2025, 09:41:12 amwhen push comes to shove, sometimes the only way stop people hurting others is to convince them, and sometimes they need proof, that you can hurt them more ..hopefully the one with the biggest stick is one of the "good guys"

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 09:35:57 pm
content: the first time you cut open a golf ball

author: coppercone2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 09:39:03 pm
content: Now little kids are making the timer circuit simulation lolhttps://minecraft.fandom.com/wiki/Tutorials/Redstone_computersI saw some video once where it was made with the TNT blocks to do logic circuitsalso making explosive barrel/zombie logic circuits in garrys mod was fun (the zombies actually are realistic replacement for operator employees IMO), and the remote detonator dynamite from the first Blood game, someone has got to have made logic gates out of that by now.https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/doe/lanl/lib-www/la-pubs/00368381.pdfI wonder what the simulator is called now. Boom spice? Yeah Bspice.The scary thing though, is that its going to be amechanical engineermaking distributed wave circuits.I don't like when ME and circuits are put together for some reason. I found a test fixture in the trash recently (ME special) where there is a custom made electric mains cord to banana jack adapter box (without a fuse) so you can plug in heaters. I hope it was meant to be used with a variac, but I am just not sure. And the fit up is so loose that a ant can pull the cord out (worst looking banana connectors I ever saw)... the insertion force could be described as "drop in" or "gravity compatible". Something about how utterly roasted it is, tells me it was left pluged in directly to mains lol

author: tom66
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 09:59:25 pm
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on June 12, 2025, 07:18:23 pmSadly people like Vladimir Putin will always exist so there is a need for some form of defence. As much as we currently have... well I would argue that Ukraine is a good case for increasing that.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2025, 10:06:41 pm
content: Quote from: tom66 on June 12, 2025, 09:59:25 pmYou forgot to factor in other bad people like Boris the Clown, Ursula von der Leyen and Victoria "fuck the EU!" Nuland and all thems that orchestrated Maidan, the real beginning of the Ukraine war.Don't worry, not going there, just sayin' ...