In this space, visitors are invited to post any comments, questions, or skeptical observations about Philo T. Farnsworth's contributions to the field of Nuclear Fusion research.Subject: Re: Results!
Date: Nov 11, 12:36 pm
Poster: Richard HullOn Nov 11, 12:36 pm, Richard Hull wrote:
>It worked the first time I put the juice to it! I didn't even mean for it to. I was just doing a "smoke test" on the electrical components and voila! I have a webpage devoted to my fusor at http://www.u.arizona.edu/~gmorris/ .
>I have lots more to say there. Y'all check it out.
All,
Gerald is another satisfied customer!! The ease of assembly, relaxed engineering requirements and broad latitude of fusor construction and operation amazes all who attmept the effort. Gerald re-affirms this on his web page.
He also notes that the vacuum aspect of this effort is the real bear. Again, a "right on" observation.
Of all the areas where casual effort is not allowed in fusor construction, safety and vacuum technology would be at the top of the list. The former because the fusor can kill, or injure the sloppy or inattentive experimenter, and the latter because so few of us really understand vacuum technolgy! Only when one realizes that leaks both real and virtual will be the nemesis of their fusor efforts even after buying or obtaining the finest equipment, will the need for superlative technique and forethought be fully appreciated. When the fusor is at 1 micron (prime operating pressure for neuts), there are still 10 to 100 trillion molecules of gas in each tiny cc of chamber volume!!!!! Thus a real tiny, microscopic and virtually insignificant leak would still amount to hundreds of millions of air molecules per second entering the chamber. This would take some time to even show up on a Thermocouple gauge!!!
An ultra high vacuum of three orders of magnitude deeper and better than the fusor requires (10E-6mm), in a small, perfectly sealed 1000cc chamber would still contain over 100 trillion air molecules!! And that is a deep vacuum folks.... equivalent to being in the open cargo bay of the space shuttle!
Yes, we all need lots of time coming up on vacuum technology.
Also, Gerald pointed out that his fusor is just at the demo phase, but we should all start there and just intensely watch and study the subtle effects of the glow discharge with pressure. You can learn a heck of a lot by doing this only, while you are waiting for that better vacuum gear or building a bigger supply or waitng for your deuterium to arrive. I can look at a fusor in operation now in glow mode and give you a good idea of the pressure (+/- 5%)!!!! This comes about through the relatively narrow operating range of the fusor and demo models (1-100) microns and a long study of the appearance at various pressures and voltages.
Welcome to the fusor club Gerald.
Richard Hull