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: Hirsch/Meeks Patent going online
Date: Jun 25, 09:26 am
Poster: Richard Hull

On Jun 25, 09:26 am, Richard Hull wrote:

Stephen is to be congratulated for placing this key, and most successful fusor patent online. His efforts at using the OCR and cleaning up the light copy of the patent I sent must be exhausting.

I hope that all of you fusioneers will notice the beuaty of the Hirsch-Meeks system. It is the plus-ultra refinement of the simple fusor!

I noted what this ideallic system was in a past posting.

1. Create and trap electrons, and thus, produce ions/deuterons near the outer grid or shell. This will increase dramatically the deterons entering the inner grid region which are at fusion energy.

2. Use a mix of D-T gas for a 2 magnitude increase in fusions events at any given acceleratory voltage.

3. Keep the device small (6-8 inches in diameter) to allow higher pressures to be used to boost neutron production/fusion. This is due to the short mean free paths at higher pressures.

#3 above is really an interesting concept. At working pressures of 10e-4 torr the mean free path approaches a meter this would allow a two meter spherical fusor. This huge fusor would have about 10e12 gas atoms present per cubic centimeter of volume. At 10e-3 torr (1 micron) we have 10 times the molecules which can be ionized and can reduce the chamber down to 6" in diameter and, for a given volume, produce 10 times the deuterons/unit volume. Yes, the volume of the large chamber will go up as the cube of the radius, but the expense of assembly and opertion will probably scale as the square of the radius, device to device.

While still a lossey device, the fusion rates are far in advance of what is currently being done. They are continuous and not pulsed. These levels can be achieved for very little money compared to other target bombardment systems. This is due to the colisional quadrupling of the energy for a given applied voltage. This allows vast reductions in size and cost of power supplies when attempting to hit any specific energy level. Basically, no special heroics are required for wiring and routing related HV components up to 20-30kv. Above this level, costly and bulky schemes must be resorted to inorder to create, and route the voltages invovled.

The beauty of this patent's design will be hard to improve upon.

Richard Hull