Archived -Tom Ligon's Fusor

[Brian McDermott]

I stumbled across this old picture of Tom Ligon with his fusor, which was obviously taken awhile back. I don't know too many of the deatails of his device, but it is interesting nonetheless.

[Starfire]

One for the archieve Brian - Great - tks.

[Richard Hull]

I have archived it. Tom built this in about 2000 and brought it to one of our HEAS conferences back then. It did not fuse, as made, but ultimately, when he went to California with Bussard, it was used as a fusor and did fusion. (no numbers reported). I think it was left with Bussard and his team as he funded its construction by Tom, or so I was lead to believe.

Richard Hull

[David Rosignoli]

If I am not mistaken, he actually demo's that model, or one close to it at Philcon, a science-fiction convention in Philadelphia at about that time frame. He showed off a demo fusor, yielding different plasma formations, and talked extensively about the fusor. I remember at the time that the science panel facilitator of the local Science fiction society responsible for the event had a hard time convincing others to get Tom to demonstrate the device: "No, it's not radioactive..."

I also remember mentioning Richard Hull's name to Tom after his talk, " ....there's this guy who also built a fusor....".
He responded (and I paraphrase): "Who do you think got him started in this?"

And the rest is history.

[Richard Hull]

As I admit on my website........Tom Ligon was the "Johnny Appleseed" of amatuer IEC fusion. As Tom admits, he did this solely due to his being instructed to do so by Bussard who was his boss at the time. (1996)

He was told to prepare a paper that would exhort amateur scientists, mainly in the high school science fair arena, to build fusors so that the word would get out and thus grease the rails for funding. Tom did this and had arranged for Analog to publish the article when they had space. The article was acually ready in late 1996 but languished for a bit at Analog.

I actually had the first amateur fusor paper published in the US, perhaps in the world, when my article on fusor construction was published in the Bell Jar magazine about 6 months before Tom's Analog article which, of course, saw a far wider circulation.

Unfortunately, sci-fi readers are, for the most part, not doers and Tom got few early inquiries. The more limited readership of the Bell Jar responded well as vacuum enthusiasts are always looking for a cool project for their vacuum setups. Quickly, another article appeared in the Electric Spacecraft Journal which I wrote. Ultimately, Tom's Analog article would be reprinted in Infinite Energy magazine with my fusor I and fusor II on the cover and in the article. (Tom had no fusor at the time so Gene Mallove phoned and asked to use my images.)

As it turned out, the first high schoolers to make even a demo fusor would be a few years into the future, but a large network of private, amateur fusor builders at the college level and much older would prove to be the ones to carry the amateur IEC torch, on the www. Thanks to the Perfesser, the seminal "Songs" fusor site kicked off in 1998. I had made my first fusor tape before then and had distributed it to interested Tesla coilers.

So, the first fusor people on "Songs" were a motley collection of Tesla coilers out for new thrills, vacuum enthusiasts looking to do fusion, friends of Tom's or mine, Farnsworth devotees and the occassional new guy who surfed in from outside. It was a few layers deep then with no google. Songs was a music site, The Farnsworth Chronicles was a branch off that site and the first fusion BBS was a small footnote off the Farnsworth side site.

Tom, to whom, I had sold a Kiethley electrometer and befriended in 1996, tried to get me interested in making a fusor as he saw my interest in Tesla coils was on the wane. I read all the papers he supplied, but was rather unimpressed until Tom came to the 1997 Teslathon at my house with his plastic desicator fusor. I would have one of my own operating one month after that. In the first fusor video, You see that Teslathon and Tom's crude device he cobbled together the night before. You also hear how much I am taken with the device on that tape as well. Yes, those were some exciting days.

Tom is now totally out of fusion and the Bussard effort and working for an aerospace electronics firm in Northern VA.

I am totally out of Tesla coils and the Teslathons have morphed into a more generalized High Energy Amateur Science conference or gathering after 1999.

Each of us is allowed to shine for a while in anything we do. Tom Ligon started a world wide amateur fusion movement while working for a noted fusion physicist. I was the first person to do actual amateur fusion in a Farnsworth fusor and the first to publish a "how-to" article on its construction. It would be up to the masterful Joe Zambelli to build and design the finest amateur fusor system ever constructed. It would be Jon Rosenstiel who would make the highest fusion count record of our group, a record he still holds with no real competition in sight. Michael Li would distinguish himself by becoming the top National Science Fair winner of an impressive $75,000 scholarship. Brian Mc Dermott would produce the most extensive "personal" website devoted to fusor construction. There are many more firsts by many others here including wins at science fairs, high schoolers actually doing fusion, etc. , but all contribute in their own way. Many are now gone or moved on to other things.

Time, people and events change over time.

Richard Hull

[Brian McDermott]

This should probably be reposted elsewhere as an FAQ detailing a "Brief History of the Amateur Fusor Movement."

[Richard Hull]

A brief history to say the least. There are so many others, not mentioned and so many early brilliant postings now sort of lost in the un-searchable "Songs" site which has, blessedly, at least been brought over in its entirity. Certainly a small booklet could be written charting the fusor adventure. There are names that were once big here that are now departed one that hits big is Jim Lux, among others. Much of his material still guides and aids others in this effort via URL pointers well buried over the three venues we have inhabited.

Richard Hull