Original ITT press release from 1960

Reflections on fusion history, current events, and predictions for the 'fusion powered future.
Post Reply
User avatar
Maciek Szymanski
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:31 pm
Real name: Maciek Szymański
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Original ITT press release from 1960

Post by Maciek Szymanski »

Is the original 1960 fusion press release from iTT available somewhere on the web? Or at last an information in which magazine or newspaper the information was published? I tried to search it in the web with no results, as well on the forum but our search engine drops three letter search phrases...
“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
User avatar
Richard Hull
Moderator
Posts: 14976
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
Real name: Richard Hull

Re: Original ITT press release from 1960

Post by Richard Hull »

I have never seen the article, but bet it was released in the Wall Street Journal as their stock shot through the roof after the announcement. ITT began making bizarre plans to build a fusion research division in California complete with artist rendering of their proposed research center. Their jets apparently cooled and it all never happened. Apparently the stock lift really made the execs very over excited and sent them into dreamland.

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
Dan Knapp
Posts: 402
Joined: Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:34 am
Real name: Dan Knapp

Re: Original ITT press release from 1960

Post by Dan Knapp »

The press release was printed by the New York Times on January 4, 1961. You can access it online via their TimesMachine web site.
Frank Sanns
Site Admin
Posts: 2117
Joined: Fri Jun 14, 2002 2:26 pm
Real name: Frank Sanns

Re: Original ITT press release from 1960

Post by Frank Sanns »

Here is a screen shot of the release. I do not have a subscription so I cannot link the entire article.

It is nothing remarkable or sensational about the work. Of course the newspaper writer grabs his headline.

There is far too much negative words toward the Farnsworth work on this site. It was an approach that needed to be investigated at the time. Any hype and financial backing at the time is dwarfed by orders of magnitude to the fellows doing fusion today. How many billion dollar fusion efforts are going on today with the promise of fusion power. In the 1960s it was new. Today, much more is known about it yet the funding and hype are monstrously high.
Attachments
Screen Shot 2021-10-12 at 9.41.27 AM.png
Achiever's madness; when enough is still not enough. ---FS
We have to stop looking at the world through our physical eyes. The universe is NOT what we see. It is the quantum world that is real. The rest is just an electron illusion. ---FS
User avatar
Richard Hull
Moderator
Posts: 14976
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2001 9:44 am
Real name: Richard Hull

Re: Original ITT press release from 1960

Post by Richard Hull »

It was the boost in their stock, regardless of the article size that just sent ITT into a frenzy, hiring architectual drawings of their proposed California fusion facility to feed the feeling that they were on a roll with fusion. Money, money money was the engine, not farnwworth, his device or the team. Impress the head office and investors and they will take it from there.....until they don't and the hype dies down.

Meeks and Haak commented that this was a very serious thing with the admiral and all the big wigs. There was talk of their having to move to California. Both noted that this shook them to their core and suddenly all such talk just magically ceased. No explanation came forward and all queries came to dead silence. It was big stuff until it was nothing.

And then, the real story began.........

Richard Hull
Progress may have been a good thing once, but it just went on too long. - Yogi Berra
Fusion is the energy of the future....and it always will be
The more complex the idea put forward by the poor amateur, the more likely it will never see embodiment
User avatar
Maciek Szymanski
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:31 pm
Real name: Maciek Szymański
Location: Warsaw, Poland

Re: Original ITT press release from 1960

Post by Maciek Szymanski »

Thank you gentlemen!
“Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Post Reply

Return to “Fusion --- Past, Present, and Future”