There was a time when I really believed that."Like the mythological sword Excalibur, the secret of the Fusor lies frozen in the rock of institutional orthodoxy....when the time is right, the mystery will finally reveal itself, the stone will unlock its secrets, the quiet passion of Philo T. Farnsworth will be re- awakened, and the dawn of a new civilization will truly be upon us."
From The Boy Who Invented Television: A Story of Inspiration, Persistence and Quiet Passion (2002) page 249.
I still want to believe that.
But as I get up in years (71 in November) I am also coming to grips with the possibility that my desire to believe exceeds the actual likelihood.
*
Frank gave me a heads up last week that things were going a little 'pear shaped' here in the Virtual Land of the Colliding Deuterons, that some of our number got a little bent out of shape over some questions about criteria, inclusion, who can do what and how fast – and the always legitimate question, "What are we doing here?"
Whenever I hear from Frank or Richard, it's a reminder to me that I have been pretty much MIA for the past year and, well, a half. And when I do chime in, I feel like I need to account for absence. So kindly indulge me for few paragraphs:
As I have observed (too many times?) before, my interest in Farnsworth and fusion has ebbed and flowed over the decades since I first met the family in the summer of 1975. It was in 'flow' mode at the start of 2020 when Frank and Jonathan Moulton (Farnsworth's great grandson) and I and a few others gathered at the home of Phil Savenick in Los Angeles for the "WaterStar Summit." Phil's house has become the depository of much of what remains of the Farnsworth Family Archives, including several artifacts from the 'fusion era' – not the least a mostly intact 'cave' model fusor from the mid 1960s. All of that has been documented elsewhere http://fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=13268.
And then... Covid. What can I say? Pandemics do strange things to people. I became pretty much a recluse out here in West Bumfuque, Tennessee.
But it was more than just the virus. In the interval between the 'summit' in January and the lockdowns in March, Richard started posting the well documented accounts from his "Attic" http://fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=13269 of all the detective work he'd done in the early 'aughts with the survivors of the Farnsworth / ITT fusion team in Fort Wayne. When he got to:
...what little air was left in the balloon I've been holding aloft for 4 decades fizzled out. Call it a pandemic-induced loss of faith.Bob Hirsch was less circumspect and one day came to Bain and showed him Farnsworth's math, telling Bain, "Farnsworth is crazy!" "This math can't be used at all....His figures are just not right!"
(from 'Two good years 1965-1966 lots of ideas')
http://fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f= ... =10#p86421
Lately I've been recalling a moment in... I dunno, 1978 or there abouts... I was visiting the Farnsworths – widow Pem, oldest son Philo III and youngest son Kent – at Pem's modest (cluttered) home in Salt Lake City. I was there to research the back story around the invention of television, but I kept spying the guts of the early bell-jar fusors tucked away in a den at one end of the house. I sensed that the subject was sensitive, that they were protective of the material, but I kept making veiled queries. At some point, Pem became exasperated and said “you’re just interested in the fusion work, aren’t you?”
I deflected the question at the time, but I have to admit, it was true. That’s what’s kept me intrigued for nearly five decades now. Go back and read my account of the afternoon on the hillside in Santa Cruz in the summer of 1973 and you'll understand the source of my intrigue. http://fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f= ... =10#p86421
I spent 25 years with the Farnsworth story before I cobbled things I'd written into the book. As Pem suspected I might from the outset, I was intent on creating a narrative trajectory out of the cosmic riddle – "How do you bottle a star?" – that had caught the imagination of a pot-addled 20-something refugee from the 1960s in the late summer of 1973.
This site site started in 1998 - four years before my book was published. At the time, it was a bit of a lark: I'd just finished posting a treatment of the Farnsworth / origins-of-television story http://farnovision.com/chronicles/ on the website I'd created to sell CDs for my indie musician friends in Nashville, songs.com. I just kinda tossed into the digital ether the question, "anybody interested in Farnsworth's fusion initiative?" And, lo and behold, somebody was: Richard Hull had only recently been approached by Tom Ligon, who had worked with Robert Bussard (of polywell fusor fame), and like a Johnny Appleseed, Tom was spreading the gospel of inertial electrostatic containment.
20-some years later, this is one of the oldest and most vibrant destinations on the Internet. It is certainly a vast well of specialized knowledge and an invaluable resource for anybody with more than a casual interest in the topic. Most of the information compiled here is of a highly technical nature, from vacuum pumping to neutron counting. Just click on the link for the 'Active Topics" and you'll see what I mean.
Which is kinda where I become a spectator or a cheerleader.
I have always been entranced with the idea of fusion, more than the nuts-and-bolts and particles-and-forces of it. I am nobody's idea of a scientist - I'm a writer (on a good day), a yarn spinner –and a bit of a fantasist.
Actual electronics are not my strong suit. Hell, I haven’t personally done anything with electricity since I re-wound the armatures of slot-car motors. When I was a teenager. In the 1960s. When the Beatles were still touring...
So I tend to glaze over at the granular details about fusor construction and operation. I’m glad all that content is there, but it’s lost on me.
But, hey, indulge me in some speculation about a compact, fusion-powered high-voltage generator tied to a synthetic gravity generator that can bend space and.... off I go again – "high on the real thing...". http://www.drumforum.org/threads/ot-fav ... 381/page-6
And then the pandemic, and then Richard's honest but gut-wrenching histories, and... Where once I thought useful electrical energy from controlled fusion was an obtainable Holy Grail, now I'm wondering if it's just a pipe dream, an hallucination, a delusion.
I think I discovered my own unique powers of self-deception when I observed that the spherical multipactor that I'd fondled in LA, the tube that started all this was...
I am subject to such delusions. How else do you explain six years in a rabbit hole in which there is no rabbit? http://ttbrown.com...the tube that produced the failure that produced the success that is still a failure.
(from: Re: Richard Hull's Attic)
http://fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f= ... ure#p86240
*
But then I think, ya know, this site? It's really something.
Fusor.net is the world's foremost repository of information and data about one of the truly esoteric - but valuable - realms of modern science. While I am not responsible for any of the useful data here, I know had a hand in starting it. I was in the right place at the right time with some nominal web-building skills and a genuine (if misguided) interest in the subject. I tossed the ball in the air in 1998; the skilled practitioners (too numerous to name) caught it and ran with it, and I could cheer them on from the sidelines and run interference at times in the form of re-situating things when the need arose. There have been some bumps and bruises along the way, some photos lost as we moved from one ISP to another, but the basic structure and purpose remains intact after more than 20 years. That is a rarity on the Interwebs.
But that's not what I came to talk to you about (and, no, Alice, I did not come to talk about the draft...)
I came to reiterate, from my perspective, my answer to Frank's question, "what are we doing here?"
We are carrying a torch, pure and simple.
And in Olympic fashion (how timely!) anybody who wants to carry that torch is welcome for whatever portion of the relay they want to carry it. There is no alpha or omega, only the journey and the passing of the torch.
Over the past week or so I have been bouncing text messages and emails back and forth with Richard and Frank, and from those exchanges I think we can identify at least three ongoing and vital roles that fusor.net has and will continue to fill:
*1. It's a unique and outstanding source of mentoring. It is genuinely gratifying to see the 'old hands' here embrace the newcomers when they arrive. Whether or not anybody ever 'cracks the code' and figures out a path to 'Q', the exchange of knowledge here is a joy and a wonder to behold.
2. This site is a vast and ever-growing historical resource and knowledge base. I think it is reasonable to say that fusor.net is one of the glowing examples of the 'open source' potential of the Internet. At a time when platforms like Facebook and Twitter are challenging the foundations of our culture, this site demonstrates the real potential of these 21st century technologies.
3. Despite my current state of moderate disillusionment, I continue to believe that, when the time is right, some kind of kismet will erupt from the knowledge base here, and some grand idea will be triggered and... well... you know... on to the stars...
So let's revisit the basics:
The genesis of this site was the Farnsworth (Hirsch, Meeks, etal) Inertial Electrostatic Containment device called the "Fusor." Hence the domain, Fusor.net. And that, I believe should continue to be the primary focus regardless of how ultimately promising (or discredited) that approach may be. Whatever foundation this point of origin has created, whatever benefit it has come to provide, all derives from that original intent.
Fusor.net has never been about "neutrons by any means" – but we have always maintained a forum for those who cared to delve into other approaches. I believe that, also, should continue, and I don't think any of the recent ripples of discontent threaten that accommodation.
In the meantime, from my long term, somewhat fantastical perspective, I just don't see how it matters who can fire up a fusor in what period of time, how quickly they can produce neutrons or make some element radioactive.
Those are all intriguing and perhaps useful benchmarks, but the progress here should be measured in what can be learned in the course of our efforts.
And frankly, I am proud, and we should all be proud, that this site is the world's leading resource of such learnings.
By all means, carry on.
--PS