Letter (Astounding, July 1948): Sorry—LiH Is an Atomic Explosive. The Cockroft-Walton Experiment Shows That 150,000 Volt Protons Cause Li to Fission Just as Thermal Neutrons Fission U-235. The Energy Yield Is About 2.5 Times That of U-235, Pound for Pound. But It takes U-235 to Excite LiH Sufficiently to Set It Off—Just as It Takes a Violent Primer Like Tetryl to Set Off Ammonium Nitrate. The Low Energy Efficiency of the Lab Experiment with Li and H Results from Small Percentage of Successful Hits. If the Li and H Are Raised to Such a Temperature That the Average Thermal Energy Equals the Neccessary Bombardment Energy, the Reaction Becomes Efficient.

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Overview:

Title: Letter (Astounding, July 1948): Sorry—LiH Is an Atomic Explosive. The Cockroft-Walton Experiment Shows That 150,000 Volt Protons Cause Li to Fission Just as Thermal Neutrons Fission U-235. The Energy Yield Is About 2.5 Times That of U-235, Pound for Pound. But It takes U-235 to Excite LiH Sufficiently to Set It Off—Just as It Takes a Violent Primer Like Tetryl to Set Off Ammonium Nitrate. The Low Energy Efficiency of the Lab Experiment with Li and H Results from Small Percentage of Successful Hits. If the Li and H Are Raised to Such a Temperature That the Average Thermal Energy Equals the Neccessary Bombardment Energy, the Reaction Becomes Efficient.
Author: Russell Chauvenet
Year: 1948
Type: Essays

Editions/Publications:

Unknown. Astounding Science Fiction, July 1948 (Unknown, Russell Chauvenet, Street & Smith Publications, Inc., $0.25, 164 pages, digest, MAGAZINE)

This text has been adapted from the Letter (Astounding, July 1948): Sorry—LiH Is an Atomic Explosive. The Cockroft-Walton Experiment Shows That 150,000 Volt Protons Cause Li to Fission Just as Thermal Neutrons Fission U-235. The Energy Yield Is About 2.5 Times That of U-235, Pound for Pound. But It takes U-235 to Excite LiH Sufficiently to Set It Off—Just as It Takes a Violent Primer Like Tetryl to Set Off Ammonium Nitrate. The Low Energy Efficiency of the Lab Experiment with Li and H Results from Small Percentage of Successful Hits. If the Li and H Are Raised to Such a Temperature That the Average Thermal Energy Equals the Neccessary Bombardment Energy, the Reaction Becomes Efficient. entry at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and is available under a Creative Commons License. The ISFDB does not endorse or sponsor this use.