I'm Paul Schatzkin, aka "The Perfesser" (don't ask, it's not a particularly good story, but the handle has stuck for nearly a decade now....). I am the author of "The Farnsworth Chronicles, now on the web at http://farnovision.com , and also the initiator of this website and forum.
I can still remember the first time I heard about Farnsworth's fusion work... really, it was the first time I heard much about Farnsworth. I'll have to retell the whole story in detail some day... it was 1973, and what I remember was... the tingling chill that crawled down my spine when I heard the apocraphyl story of Farnsworth's "unfinished symphony."
Two years later (1975), by virtue of an unimaginable chain of events, I found myself in Mrs. Farnsworth's basement in Salt Lake City gazing up the remains of one of the last fusors.
Fast forward 25 years, and after adding a "fusion chapter" to the Chronicles, I am astounded that there is an active coterie of experimenters around the world who are ressurecting Farnsworth's unorthodox approach to creating "stars in a jar."
I don't know if I'm ever going to build a fusor myself... that's not really where my "skill sets" lie. My skills are more of an organizational and promotional nature.
I'm still trying to decide how much of a personal commitment I should make to this effort. I have some ideas how this work could be funded... and I'm good at "selling" the kind of concepts that we're debating here. But I've also read a bit recently about the history of the whole fusion effort going back now more than 50 years, and the litany gives a (sane?) man pause. Others have tried and come up so short...
So I'm still on the fence here... lest I don the armor of Arthur and go off on a crusade for an un-achiveable grail. Or worse, take after Quixote and spend the rest of my life jousting at a windmill.
The dialog that is taking place here is important on a number of levels, not the least of which is that it demonstrates the ability of the Internet to assemble like-minded people around the world to advance the Human Condition. Time will tell if the information exchanged here provides an ultimate solution to our world's energy needs (hello... California calling!), but I am gratified in the meantime to know that the forum is serving a useful purpose for those who contribute to and draw from it.
Thanks,
--PS
Created on Saturday, January 20, 2001 8:03 PM EDT by The Perfesser