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: Where are fusor plans?
Date: May 27, 2:28 pm
Poster: Jim LuxOn May 27, 2:28 pm, Jim Lux wrote:
>Jon wrote:
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>> My current sense of the situation is that Dr. Farnsworth's hot fusion _does_ work, but more on the scale of a parlor trick than an actual renewable energy source.
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>Your have the right idea here. However fusion is fusion, regardless of output or usefulness. If Farnsworth's fusor is a parlor trick then all of the giant multi-million dollar, multi-ton, multi-manned, tokomaks, sphereomaks and tritium iceball laser blasters are really just bigger parlor tricks as they are doing the same thing.............That is, supplying vastly less energy out than was input. The only thing they have to say over our little fusor is,...... More money in, more on the payroll...
Richard has described the basic principle behind many large (fusion) research projects: "entertainment for the few, employment for the many." The former could be provided by small scale experiments, such as Farnsworth fusors. The latter is, of course, what gets you elected.
We wouldn't want all those physicists, lab assistants, etc, as well as the admins, the accountants, and the oversight committees to be unemployed on the street where they might get into trouble.
And of course, information gained in the "pure science" of fusion power research has applicability to the "evil, dirty" world of weapons, and allows many who have some philosophical objection to nuclear weapons to get funded for working on them. I would imagine that a very large fraction of all that is known about fission and fusion was learned while trying to make bombs. Certainly, we all benefit from such advances as the development of Teflon.