As members of the Fusor team pass away, more and more details can be revealed.
This is not an expose' or meant to be negative, but offered up as more informative related to The old Farnsworth effort.
There are many sides to this story and as such many explanations and slants.
To make a significant statement related to the very early fusor effort performed at ITT, I will give some background.
Farnsworth pleaded with ITT management in the mid 50's to allow him to investigate fusion. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Finally in 1959 with a new President of ITT and Admiral Furth pushing the plea along, ITT funded, to an almost insignificant level, a small effort at their Fort Wayne facility allowing for the salaries of Farnsworth, one engineer and one technician.
The early efforts were based on "multipacting" electron beams rather than ion beams. This was Farnsworth's idea. The "top hat" or "bell jar", solid dynode design took about 1 year to assemble. No neturons were seen... Not one, during its entire tenure of operation 1960 to early 1962!! However, in late 1961 ITT demanded a test and proof of concept to allow the work to continue into 1962.
The team realized, by now, that the electron bombardment and multipacting concept was not viable. (Farnsworth's original seed idea) They now planned to make a new ion beam design. However, to continue they needed to show proof that the fusor concept was a good idea.
With a couple of ITT executives and scientific jurists in a rather loose inspection mode, the electron multipacting fusor was started and as the high voltage was applied, the neutron counter started to click, and at full power, clicked away like mad. The voltage was taken down and the clicking subsided.
All present were most impressed and felt that ITT was on to something big. So big, in fact, that once back in New York, the now famous press release was put out saying that ITT was actively pursuing successful fusion and the now famous image of Farnsworth by the bell jar device appeared in associated articles along with the image of four scientific people standing around the device. ITT stock surged upward with this revelation.
The entire test was a staged hoax! The hoaxing was physically performed by Gene Meeks at the direction of someone whom he would not finger while alive.
Gene had discovered, one day, that if he tested for vacuum leaks using the common leak detector of the day, a hand held Tesla coil, the neutron counter would go nuts. He relayed this information to all the team members in a light hearted manner as no one had ever seen the counters move in any test.
On the day of the proof of performance test, Gene was told to go into the next room and listen during the ITT testing for the high voltage call out and as it climbed, he was to play the tester spark along a massive fume hood intermittently and at the maximum fusor voltage call out he was to arc the tester closely and at a fixed point on the hood until the callout of decending fusor voltage. when he would again walk the tester loosely along the large hood. This was the illicitly generated count that launched a bigger funding from ITT to create the more successful real future fusion efforts and boost the stock as well as bring Farnsworth into the spotlight, more so than had his work in television, at least for a while.
Sad, but true. A faked test actually got the ball rolling for real.
Be most clear, in that I point no finger, nor make accusations as to a specific person or persons who issued the command to Gene. He was too loyal, even in old age, to reveal who directed him. Note that all of this was long before Hirsch was involved with the effort.
Finally, near the end of the adventure, in November 1966, Farnsworth was retired after going on a 6 month bender which ITT officilly listed as a medical leave of absence. Hirsch became the number one man and in charge of the entire Fort Wayne effort. In February of 1967 Hirsch made some proposals by memorandum to ITT.
With Farnsworth gone, his original effort and team as well as the "pit" based fusor was no longer a directed effort. As such, George Bain and Fred Haak, in a memo put out by Hirsch, were designated to be "reassigned" within ITT....off the fusor project!
In another memorandum and announcement proposal, Hirsch proposed that only himself, as project leader, and Steve Blasing, his research technician, remain working on the "Cave" system and that Gene Meeks be elevated to researcher and engineering technician. Gene worked with Hirsch on the upcoming demo fusor and was granted his own personal fusor station in a front room office. Hirsch also names several Phd's who were not on site, but would be used and paid for consulting and often actual research efforts at their respective academic locations.
Thus, Bain and Haak were gone in 1967 as the ITT work ground on and ultimately to a halt into late 1968.
There you have another update. Meeks admission to faking the 1961 neutron counts is corroborated by another team member.
Fact of interest:
The longest serving person on the fusor effort was Gene Meeks. He served longer than even Phil Farnwsworth and the Admiral!
Gene Meeks - 1958-1968 ITT, 1968 PTFA, 1968-1972 under Andrew Gardner at BYU in Utah (operated and maintained working ITT fusor in the physics department there).
In short, Gene was there from May of 1958 when the first work was done in the Farnsworth's private residence on State Street as an after hour helper to Farnsworth, (paid by Phil, personally, outof pocket), until the ultimate and the final shut down of the 4 year BYU effort in introducing students to working fusion systems in 1972. 14 years! Phil had 9 years of direct involvment. The Admiral and George Bain had 8 years. Steve Blasing had about 6 years, Fred Haak about 5 years and Hirsch, a little over 4 years.
As always, there is much, much more not yet told.
One need not conclude that the ITT effort was the sole fusion effort where some obfuscation and "strategic misrepresentation of the facts" came into play. That would be a childish and rose tinted glasses view of the way things really work or get done or are handled, (mishandled), in the world of funding and project "keep alive" efforts. There are stories I have heard from project leaders that would curl yer' toes.
The vast majority of these people are not out to swindle or steal or even keep a job, but really believe in their work and feel it will have a happy outcome if they could just have a bit more time or funding.
Sadly, for fusion, all past efforts have failed to produce net energy outside of that coming from within the human spirit.
Richard Hull |
2007-08-27 13:12 Revealing More Fusion History (Richard Hull) [Latest: 2007-09-10 14:11]