Fusion Message Board

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: Cylindrical IEC
Date: Jan 06, 10:20 am
Poster: Jim Lux

On Jan 06, 10:20 am, Jim Lux wrote:

>The Farnsworth team had several test units for this concept rather late in their game after 1964. I have several photos of one in particular where the cylindrical inner grid looked like a sausage about 6" long. The whole thing was in a large (12"??) conflat nipple.


It is unclear from the papers that I have what the real configuration is (they've written a raft of theoretical papers with designs for power producing cylindrical IEC units, but the dimensions are huge). From some of the papers, it seems that the cylinder is short and squat (that is, the length of the cylinder is quite small relative to the diameter. Not much mention is made of the ends of the cylinder (does the grid just end, or is it sloped, rounded, attached to the end wall of the chamber, etc?)

Which Miley paper actually gives experimental neutron counts from a cylinderical geometry? Most of the ones I've seen give measurements from a variety of spherical geometries.

Of course, perhaps they are just being cagey with a potentially profitable development, and only publishing enough to establish priority?