This was a test run as were many of the fusor startups. The unit was a gunned unit, but few can remember much more than that. They were not taking a "for the record run". As such, no neutron instrumentation was used and no data recording was in progress at the time of the incident.
The 5 week delay in returning the fusor on line and the failure to acheive similar performance on restarting left them still in the dark.
I offered the story up for what it was worth to those interested.
One thing about the ITT period was that 90% of all fusor on time was at reduced power as new guns, new cathodes, or other modifications were hummed in, mainly in preparation for the rare major run for Philo and the admiral or on rare occassions visiting scientists, engineers or compnay officials. Virtually every interesting event, and the were several, occured during these trial run and never during a full power run when neutron counters hummed away indicating ever greater counts.
Richard Hull
Created on Monday, May 21, 2001 12:29 AM EDT by Richard Hull