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Fac<strong>to</strong>ry No. 22<br />
<strong>to</strong> be able <strong>to</strong> critically assess his proposed alternative before going in<strong>to</strong> foolish<br />
raptures about his own genius. Finally, when everything is already clear <strong>to</strong> the<br />
inven<strong>to</strong>r, when everything has been written and calculated, when the invention<br />
has even gone before a panel of experts and there are no doubts as <strong>to</strong> its innovation<br />
and advantages, that is when the most difficult stages begin: realization,<br />
experimental modification, and introduction.Therein lies the fundamental difference<br />
between the creative work of an inven<strong>to</strong>r and engineer and that of a poet<br />
or artist.<br />
I referred <strong>to</strong> my proposed electric bomb release as “the electronic.” In place of<br />
the complex electromechanical clockwork used for the selection of time intervals<br />
during stick bombing, I devised an electronic time relay with a broad range for<br />
regulating the initiation time. I also needed <strong>to</strong> think up a circuit <strong>to</strong> convert the<br />
time relay <strong>to</strong> a pulse genera<strong>to</strong>r. In place of the highly complex mechanism used<br />
for selecting the required bomb racks, I used the simple and inexpensive switch<br />
used in an au<strong>to</strong>matic phone switchboard.When everything, including a mercuryvapor<br />
thyratron, was assembled and soldered <strong>to</strong>gether on a sheet of plywood, it<br />
began <strong>to</strong> work.A fac<strong>to</strong>ry military representative reported about my initiative <strong>to</strong> the<br />
armaments department of the Air Force Direc<strong>to</strong>rate.<br />
After explanations at Varvarka, where the Air Force Direc<strong>to</strong>rate headed by<br />
Alksnis was located at the time, they sent me, with the appropriate reference, <strong>to</strong> the<br />
building on Red Square that housed the Direc<strong>to</strong>rate of Military Inventions.A few<br />
days later, Direc<strong>to</strong>rate Chief Glukhov sent for me and reported that Tukhachevskiy<br />
himself had approved funding for the development and manufacture of experimental<br />
pro<strong>to</strong>types of the bomb release system according <strong>to</strong> an agreement that the<br />
Air Force Direc<strong>to</strong>rate was <strong>to</strong> conclude.<br />
in august 1934,having endured the competitive examination, I finally became<br />
a student at the V. M. Molo<strong>to</strong>v Moscow Power Engineering Institute (MEI). For<br />
material reasons, I did not want <strong>to</strong> quit work, and I began my studies in night<br />
school without leaving production. MEI had split off from MVTU about three<br />
years earlier and was scattered among various buildings in the area of Koroviy Brod<br />
and Radio Street.The subway was still just being built. After 420 minutes on my<br />
shift, I made the hour-and-a-half journey from Fili <strong>to</strong> MEI, satisfying my hunger<br />
on the streetcars on the way.<br />
Classes in the night school began at six o’clock and finished at ten o’clock. Each<br />
student had already worked in industry for three <strong>to</strong> four years. From our personal<br />
life experience, we were convinced of how important it was <strong>to</strong> gain systematic<br />
knowledge in the fundamentals of science. It was precisely this desire <strong>to</strong> rise above<br />
everyday mundane cares that made us listen attentively <strong>to</strong> lectures, not fall asleep<br />
during seminars, and introduce improvements <strong>to</strong> our labora<strong>to</strong>ry work. Our professors<br />
and instruc<strong>to</strong>rs unders<strong>to</strong>od that they were not dealing with school kids,<br />
but rather with skilled workers, technicians, and designer-practitioners. A distinct<br />
community of interests was established in the educational process. We would let<br />
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