Hot fusion was the cold war quest.
Besides the space race, fusion was the socioscientific dream.
The loss of hope ... the loss of myth ... in this massive social
project produced a brooding meditation among engineers who were
devoted to its fulfillment. For Be better part of twenty years
there were billions of dollars spent for fusion research ... seemingly
in vain
.
The Farnsworth Fusor
The Most Notably Forgotten Episode in "Hot" Fusion History
by Gerry Vassilatos
Reprinted with permission from Borderlands,
Second Quarter 1995
(note: this article begins with a rather
lengthy discussion of the nature of scientific knowledge, particularly
as it pertains to the history fusion of research. The article is reprinted
here in its entirety, but those readers with a specific interest in
the Farnsworth case might want to just skip to
HERE....)
A recent excellent
article by Lawrence Forsley recounted each major step in the history
of "hnot fusion" projects. The account depicts the arduous
pursuit of hopeful and brilliant personnel chasing after a prize which
never appeared. This chapter in technological history left most scientific
researchers with a sense of silent despair. Exploration of this inward
sense of loss was an emotional item which few actually and honestly
addressed. Yet the projects rolled on.
Hot fusion was
THE cold war quest. Besides the space race, FUSION was the socioscientific
dream. The loss of hope ... the loss of myth ... in this massive social
project produced a brooding meditation among engineers who were devoted
to its fulfillment. For the better part of twenty years there were
billions of dollars spent for fusion research ... seemingly in vain.
Each lost social
dream becomes social malaise. Wars develop when social myths are deferred.
The synthetic manufacture of new and continual myths replaces the
hope deferred. Governments and regulators sponsor such alternative
myths continually. The gross funding of new fusion projects represents
a means for maintaining public morale at a very subliminal level.
The prizeelusive
was replaced by countless journals, articles, and texts ... as if
so much paper would fulfill the absence of the Grail. This general
sense of misdirection among most physicists was balanced by a furious
return to the chalkboards and publishing homes. The dream deferred
became mere talk and analysis. Theoreticians, at least, found continual
employment.
Shelves of once
optimistic theoretical works on fusion were suddenly flooded over
with equally optimistic and authoritarian apologetics. These inflated
works proclaimed the "way out" through newer magnetic containment
systems.
While most project
personnel simply dissociated themselves from the race for controlled
fusion, others (foolishly) raised their broken swords higher and "challenged
nature to achieve where anti others failedn. This of course meant
that grant monies were to be sought again ... despite the generally
accepted hopelessness of the quest Fusion researchers were trapped,
like some modern Tantalus ... in magnetic containment
MAGNETIC CONTAINMENT
The tragedy
of each magnetic containment device lay chiefly in the theoretical
promise which always failed. The hope deferred seemed to flood each
separate project not long after a particular device was constructed.
One usually knew after the very first trial what the end would be
... and how soon it would come.
In methodic
succession, and after several billion dollars were spent it became
apparent that the magnetic containment systems would not succeed at
all. Mercurial and elusive, certain designers attempted to "steal
the secret" despite the natural odds: to fight with Nature and
wrestle from her jealous hands the guarded gold. Not one imagined
that perhaps their method was the wrong one ... that Nature would
not let go of her gold because the suitors were behaving like barbarians.
The need for
the gigantic was also a feature of these projects. No units smaller
than a gymnasium could meet the theoretical need. Somehow both the
theoreticians and project designers believed the delusion that size
and symmetry would "make the difference" in magnetic systems.
Always the secret hope was held that "this one might do it."
Small laboratory devices produced unstable plasmas because they were
small. Larger devices should produce more crushing power ... like
building an ever larger press to squeeze a lightning bolt.
Many project
designers simply failed to promise a fusion achievement altogether
from the outset ... preferring to maintain the "safe grounds
of plasma analysis." The ancillary projects (instability analysis,
arc analysis, plasma contamination, plasma diagnostics) made their
appearance ... a flood of "studies" ... but no reactor.
Grant money was poured into "plasma analytic methodologies"
and almost dominated the scene where working fusion reactors should
have stood.
P. Kapitza studied
ball lightning phenomena with a remarkably opened mind when few academicians
would not even dare touch the topic at all. S. Ulam also studied reports
of the accidental formation of plasmoids among submarine generators
and arc switching devices. Others studied the piezoelectric formation
of plasmoids in rock fractures. Thorough research on Tesla Technology
(and Tesla's means for generating plasmoids at will) seemed to open
doorways toward new possibilities.
M. Theroux developed
a special Tesla transformer which actuary projected small aerial plasmoids
... and could repeat the performance. The Air Force funded a much
larger project toward this end (R Golka). Each was looking for the
answer in a new realm. And this was the precise answer ... to look
elsewhere for that which intuition envisions.
Intuition craves
confirmation however. Too few of these "new view" researchers
were actually familiar with the archives of both natural and laboratory
anomalies. No one remembers what has already been achieved in isolated
laboratories. Very often a chance occurrence, however subtle, gives
the new direction to the world. New hydrogen energy, you will remember,
was observed by several qualified persons in diverse places. Had these
records been forgotten, perhaps the new revolution might never have
been forged.
Were the hot
fusionists true and ardent students of the stored periodical treasurehouse
they too would not have simply written more surficial papers on their
views. They would have known what to do to achieve the prize itself,
for the answer was there ... in a group of patents some twenty five
years old which should have been known by all of them collectively.
Perhaps they would have found their way back to the forgotten mines
... but then came Tokamak.
When the Tokamak
rose in the east, it seemed to offer the brightest new morning of
life for fusion research. Many stole away to steal the secret of its
fire. But even the Tokamak failed to deliver the immediacy of its
promised prize. So deeply resentful were many researchers after the
postponement of immediate success that few would even believe that
the goal could be reached at all.
It is not unreasonable
(given the emotional infrastructure of fusion research) that science
had become first melancholy and then sanguine in all its subsequent
discussions of controlled nuclear fusion. The topic represents (to
the crusaders) a major dragon left undefeated. Most would rather forget
the dream and all knowledge of it.
Forgotten knowledge
was the main problem. Even before magnetic containment was attempted,
there was a simpler answer to the particle containment problem. In
his closing paragraphs Dr. Forsley asks that we imagine the truths
which were lost through out this period in venturetechnology.
An answer had
been recorded into the scientific ledgers already which would have
spared these valiant workers much time, money, and disappointment.
Forgotten knowledge started all the researchers off in the wrong direction
from the start.
FORGOTTEN KNOWLEDGE
Unexpected devices
of great import emerge from very old patent registers and periodicals.
These developments span two hundred years of astounding technological
progress, and chronicle our epistemological progress as a civilization.
The literary treasure house of this time period contains incredible
discoveries which remain yet unrecognized, unevaluated, and forgotten.
Despite this
fact, many academicians are overly confident that "old knowledge"
has been thoroughly comprehended and admixed into contemporary theory
and is, therefore, expendable. This view is inwardly believed to such
a degree that old texts are methodically being gathered into "annex"
warehouses. These treasures are then permitted to decay and are (gradually)
eliminated.
This shockingly
repugnant pride is the very opposite of scientific sensibility. This
mindset is counterproductive and totally self destructive. Each
new unexpected discovery comes as a sharp rebuke to those who remain
unenlightened concerning the past. Old texts preserve forgotten thoughts
... not disproven thoughts. Researchers have committed their often
anomalous and disquieting observations and findings to the journals
and texts. It is traditional practice that what cannot be now explained
must be treasured, pondered, and comprehended for some future purpose.
Discovery and anomaly are rare gifts which must be honored and preserved
until understood.
The scientific
historian methodically searches out catalogues of forgotten phenomena
by thorough examination of old periodicals, texts, and patent files.
The retrieval of old and forgotten observations, discoveries, scientific
anecdotal records, and rare natural phenomena provide the intellectual
dimension desperately needed by modern researchers who work in a vacuum
of dogma. It is astounding to find the volumes of rare and anomalous
phenomenalists and laboratory anecdotes made by credible and
qualified Victorian researchers throughout older volumes of Nature
Magazine and The Electrician (c.1890).
The retrieval
of inventions, designs, and other applications reveal repeatable phenomena
"in application" which demand reevaluation of tenaciously
held theoretical models. The trained researcher identifies, distinguishes,
and secures those particular forgotten discoveries which violate contemporarily
held theoretical models. The aim of this research is new knowledge
through reevaluation.
Eric Dollard
is an electrical engineer who has done remarkably exhaustive historical
research and experimental verifications of scientific claims made
by Nikola Tesla a century before. It was through Mr. Dollard that
we learned about a forgotten chapter in the art of controlled thermonuclear
fusion like no other. In fact, those who read this article may be
shocked to learn the real truth abouttone specific "hot fusion"
project from 1962 until 1967.
The reality
of anyone controlling fusion reactions ... and reaching selfsustaining
reaction stage would sound bizarre to anyone familiar with the historical
publications. Of all the venture projects chasing after the hot fusion
Grail one group of researchers looked directly into Nature's brilliant
face and saw her sparkling eyes. Mr. Dollard's research on unusual
electron tubes led him into an exhaustive study of several vacuum
tube designs patented by the father of electronic television: Dr.
Philo T. Farnsworth. There he found the forgotten gem.
PHILO T. FARNSWORTH
Among the incredibly
prolific patents of Dr. Farnsworth are two working designs for achieving
practical nuclear ("hot") fusion. Dr. Farnsworth is the
original designer of true electronic television. He had to develop
the entire system of electronic television with all its parts. Image
dissectors, pulse transmitters, synchronizing oscillators, synchronous
scanning, image analyzers, receivers, and special cathode ray tubes
... Farnsworth conceived, designed, and hand built each of them.
The technological
demands of his complete television system required the development
of very special electron tubes from start to finish. Each component
demanded new tube designs and operational theories. In fact, examination
of the Farnsworth patents reveals nothing but novel tube designs without
contemporary equal.
Existing multielement
tubes could neither match the stringent power demands or frequency
requirements of television. Therefore Farnsworth developed numerous
unusual tubes to make his television oscillators, receivers, and transmitters
more efficient. No existing technology could match the performance
characteristics of his UHF oscillators, electron multipliers, and
cold cathode signal amplifier tubes when he patented them.
Farnsworth designed
numerous highpower UHF tubes. Notable among these designs were
cold cathode devices (some of which employed soft radioactive materials),
photomultipliers, multipactors, IR imaging tubes, image storage tubes,
and image amplifiers. Each was a marvel of originality and inspiration.
But the multipactor was a true wonder.
The multipactor
design employs two opposed concave cathodes and a central series of
cylindrical anodes. Noise surges generate and sustain powerful tunable
oscillations within the multipactor when voltage is simply applied
to the cathodes and anode. The multipactor utilizes photomultiplier
effects to supply electrons. Multipactor performance borders on the
anomalous, approaching "impossible" efficiency coefficients..
His success was followed closely by engineers from every military
and industrial group. Fullscale research addressed the multipactor
efficiency "problem". Reports from the time period may be
easily secured for study and reevaluation.
Farnsworth continued
to be a prolific designer of very unusual electron tubes before and
after World War II. Casual examination of his patents continually
proved the genius behind the legend. Dr. Farnsworth explored new alternatives
and designed radically new concepts into a series of electron tubes
which became as heralded as his development of electronic television.
Each development produced in own species of anomalous phenomena These
were each utilized and compounded in his successive developments.
The patent record tells the story best.
PLASMOIDS AND
VIRTUAL ELECTRODES
While testing
high power UHF tubes Farnsworth discovered an anomalous selffocussiog
space charge phenomenon. These space charge plasmoids glowed all the
more brilliant with increasing application of voltage ... a control
characteristic. He named these pointplasma phenomena "poissors".
"Poissors
are brilliant spacesuspended plasmoids of starlike appearance.
When Dr. Farnsworth operated his multipactors the poissor phenomena
manifested themselves with special brilliance. Electron optical focusing
concentrates ions just as mirrors concentrate light. Early Farnsworth
multipactors utilized twin opposed concave cold cathodes.
The design feature
of concave electrodes was a radical departure in the world of electron
tube designs at the time. Most electrodes of the day were simple planar
surfaces. The concaves permitted the rediscovery of electron
optics ... a phenomenon originally witnessed by Sir William Crookes
and forgotten. Students are directed to the Crookes tube with its
concave cathodes.
Farnsworth multipactors
and cold cathode discharge tubes produce optically focused "poissors"
and exhibited all the responsecontrol characteristics later
sought by plasma physicists in their race toward achieving hot fusion.
Controlresponsive poissors would shrink in size, increase in
ionic density, and produce more brilliant light with increasing voltage
application.
Notably discovered
in 1936, the poissor phenomenon made a new breed of electron power
tubes and plasma devices possible. The existence of these mysterious
suspended plasmoids stimulated Farnsworth's research toward the refined
use of electron optics. His refinement and use of the newly manifested
phenomena produced remarkable performance efficiencies in UHF and
SHF applications. In their unprecedented spherical geometries the
Farnsworth tubes proved incredibly efficient and long lasting.
Virtual electrodes
could influence electron behavior in power tubes. Ions could be bound
in small plasma points (poissors) exhibiting stability in ionic multilayers
and sheaths. Poissors could absorb and store energy: an aspect which
deeply impressed Dr. Farnsworth. The time for their retrieval from
the archives of the anomalous drew close.
By 1953 he had
conceived of a means for using the poissor phenomenon to produce controlled
nuclear fusion reactions.. The patent record shows that Farnsworth
achieved the goal. Yet, there are far more deeply entwined reasons
why few have ever heard of Dr. Farnsworth's contributions and achievements
besides the academic censure of this possibility.
THE "FUSOR"
In 1959 H. S.
Geneen (Raytheon) invited Dr. Farnsworth to address the ITT board
of directors on controlled nuclear fusion. Against the verbalized
misgivings of the AEC this lecturepresentation was given. Shortly
thereafter a preliminary test on the Farnsworth "Fusor"
was performed in a small ITT basement laboratory. His first design
for a hot fusion reactor was realized in 1959. ITT monitored all the
research and brought its own supervisors into Farnsworth's team.
Virtual poissor
plasmoids of deuterium would be isolated, shaped, confined, treated,
balanced, or moved without magnetic confinement. Farnsworth's solution
to reactant confinement was elegant, simple, inexpensive, and highly
efficient. He designed a new and dramatically original tube which
he named "The Fusor". This was the summation of a lifetime's
discoveries and development. I believe it is the most advanced electron
power tube ever designed.
The Fusor is
a device which produces controllable hot fusion reactions and does
not utilize magnetic confinement. The design is a radical departure
from all the designs of its time frame. The Fusor is comprised of
a spherical anode which concentrically surrounds a cathode. A plurality
of ion guns are mounted on the anode exterior in spherically spaced
and diametrically aligned relationship so that their beam axes intersect
at the cathode center. Ions from the guns are propelled and focused
into the center of the cathode. This establishes in the cathode interior
a series of concentric spherical sheaths of alternating maxima and
minima potentials: the "virtual electrodes".
Ions never touch
any surfaces in these tubes. Magnets are never needed. The ions which
"fall" into the center-most virtual electrode have fusion
energies, and are contained at a density sufficient to produce fusion
reactions. Charged particles are literally compressed into the required
density in the central region by the process of inertial containment
... a term in the art which Farnsworth first coined.
Oscillating
ions are concentrically gathered in a series of charge sheaths which
conform to the optically focussed fields and which represent the distributed
kinetic energies of ions in the poissor. Potential escaping prereactive
ions encounter successive electrostatic repulsions until they are
forced back into their center. The Fusor System proved stable throughout
its forgotten seven year research history.
With developed
potentials of sufficiently high magnitude the fusion reaction can
be sustained and controlled at will. Furthermore, fusion energy produces
powerfully escaping nuclei which perform work against the anode field.
This ionic pressure augments the applied field and appearing as a
dramatic surge in field strength: one that may be directly harnessed
and used in external loads as electrical power.
The fears of a "runaway reaction" were handled in the natural
equilibrium maintained by the poissor core structure ... as stars
self maintain their output by expanding and reducing plasma density.
Poissors were found to be remarkably resilient and resistive to instabilities.
Farnsworth solved the confinement and conversion problems in one design.
The field symmetries and process involved in achieving this variety
of hot fusion seems macro-analogous to those characteristics being
now explored in "cold" fusion.
On October 8,
1960, the Mark I produced a steadystate neutron count when deuterium
was admitted into the device with very low power application. The
central feature during these tests was not the neutron count itself.
What was sought in these tests lay in the control of the reaction
under increasing power application. Farnsworth established and charted
increasing neutron counts with increasing application of electrostatic
power. It is suggested that the reader obtain and study copies of
the Fusor
(patent 3,386,883).
STEADY PROGRESS
With deuterium
gas in the Mark II Model 2 Fusor a count exceeding 50 Mneutrons
cc/sec was recorded at 80 Kv. and 30 rnA. input. This device produced
1.3 G-neutrons/sec. in a sustained reaction for more than one minute.
These reactions were stable, completely under the operator's control,
and could be repeated.
On October 5,
1965 the Fusor Mark IIModel 6 was tested. A reconfigured, highprecision
ion gun arrangement produced l Gneutrons cc/see at 20 Kv. and
1 mA .... a record achievement. On December 28, 1965 tritium was admitted
into the test chamber ... producing 2.6 G-neutrons/sec. at 105 Kv.
and 45 mA.. With a mixture of tritium and deuterium on the very next
day Dr. Farnsworth's team measured and recorded 6.2 G-neutrons/sec.
at 170 Kv..
The Mark III Fusor produced startling high
records in quick succession. By the start of 196.5 the team was routinely
measuring 15.5 G-neutrons/sec. at 150 Kv and 70 mA.. The final problem
to be tackled involved the poissor itself. Self-containing and tightly
layered, the fusion poissor would not admit fuel into its core once
the reaction had begun. It must be remembered that this Fusor was
softballsized. A Fusor having a diameter of just one meter would
permit greater ignition power for a smaller time period ... while
multiplying output power volumetricallv.
SUSTAINED FUSION
REACTION
Dr. Farnsworth
reported that his team achieved a selfsustaining reaction on
several occasions ... and could repeat the effect. He once invited
his wife to watch a testrun of this feat. As power was applied
to the Fusor the neutronreading meter achieved a steady threshold
and there remained ... until a slight increment of power was applied.
Then the needle went off the scale. Dr. Farnsworth cut the applied
power ... but the needle remained in place for thirty seconds or more
as the reaction continued.
ITT gradually
absorbed the entire project. All related patents were assigned to
ITT as success was achieved in steady steps. While steady progress
was being achieved at a modest cost (examine the photographs), lTT
was being influenced by powerful professionally hired "opinion
makers" to drop fusion research. Suddenly even Wall Street analysts
were publishing their "concerns" for ITT and its absorption
of the Farnsworth subsidiary. Farnsworth himself was made the focus
of every corporate death-word. These outlandish accusations indelibly
remain in newspapers from the time period.
The suppression
and assassination of technology is historically the response of frightened
competitors ... response to an impending breakthrough which might
wipe out competitors. Crowd pleasing philanthropists become predators
when possible usurpers appear.
Piercing voices
appeared from everywhere against Farnsworth. A large reception at
the Waldorf was astir with executive unrest concerning the Farnsworth
research project While dressing, Farnsworth suffered a mild stroke.
The AEC was mounting the nuclear fission race and the "antifusion"
race simultaneously ... and using every tactic to achieve total dominance
of the energy field. He was relieved of his research project
The effect of
such disappointment upon those whose lives and hopes are involved
in such research is never superficial. In them ride the dreams of
whole societies and futures. Those who harm such individuals do not
survive in the long run. The price for the dreamer, however, is dear.
Dr. Farnsworth suffered another stroke on a plane ride back home.
He then retired to convalesce.
During his recuperative
period at home he decided that the Fusor should be developed to its
complete perfection. ITT had formally and publicly stated that the
Fusor was a "deadend". Farnsworth thought that since
this was their attitude, he might have a try at reobtaining
his patents. He therefore contacted ITT and honestly announced his
intentions. The answer was negative and impersonal ... a curious response
for a device which was a "dead-end"... given to such an
eminent personage whose inventions maintain the entire ITT operation
to this day.
COOL DOWN
In quick successions,
ITT asserted its complete ownership of all Fusor applications in the
future. ITT warned Farnsworth that it would dominate all Fusor research
forever ... despite its "unfeasibility". ITT then cut all
formal financial ties with Farnsworth and left him virtually bankrupt.
ITT now holds the Farnsworth patents ... and bears the social debt
of responsibility for suppressing Fusor technology.
In July 1969
Farnsworth built a small Fusor lab in a Brigham Young University cellar
room. With purchased equipment from ITT he continued his research
with generous University support. Creditors were crowding him on every
side. During this time an offer came to him from SONY. He felt unable
to continue. Physically ill for a long time and emotionally scarred,
he died from pneumonia in 1971.
The aim of my
article is not simply to reexpose mere technical facts ... but
to explore deeper issues of science and society. Hot fusion was achieved,
scrutinized, assassinated ... and suppressed. It is remarkable that
few individuals in the fusion research teams across the world are
even aware that their goal was realistically attained. The device
which attained this feat was elegantly simple, but the movements of
these social energies must first be clearly understood.
Several questions
now demand simple answers. What names were behind the obvious and
deliberate attack on Farnsworth's Fusor project? How have these forces
managed to keep Farnsworth's work completely suppressed? How is it
that ITT never reexarnined and duplicated the Fusor Project?
Why are outrageously huge funds yet being supplied for Tokamak projects?
Are these grant mixappropriations deliberate or are they the
inertial results of forgotten knowledge? Is the synthesis of artificial
social myths accumulating ignorance among those who originally produced
them?
UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY
Those who are
familiar with the lure of science archives understand very well that
more potential technology lies dormant than is currently addressed,
discussed, or implemented. Much of modern scientific research is the
weak echo of work already completed within the last century. There
are those who prefer to collect grants and assure themselves of bureaucratically
"safe" experiments rather than ris} their yearly salaries
on radically new scientific ventures.
Survivalism
among academicians is no less savage and ruthless than among other
groups with whom we more often associate base behavior. There are
those who use projects in "throw away" fashion just to survive.
There are those whose jaded personalities have taken a survivalistic
stance and already accept that hot fusion is a deadend ... but
a steady income.
This kind of
pessimism in the scientific field promotes status-quo technology and
eventually blocks He paths toward adventure arid discovery wherever
and whenever it can. Unfulfilled minds become pessimistic. Unchecked
pessimism becomes maliciousness.
The true and
original artists of contemporary science are difficult to name except
for those in radical technological ventures. It is rare today to find
that kind of explosive scientific development which absolute saturates
Victorian journals between 1880 and 1910. Yet we recognize that our
Victorian mentors were responsible for the paths upon which we are
now traveling.
More radical
discovery and technology were forged during the Victorian time period
than is actually engaged today. Science also seems to have great difficulty
in making simple assertive statements as did our forebears ... who
produced a far greater weight of accomplishments. Science speaks of
"statistical agreement" and "reasonably close correlations".
Not one individual is willing or able to simply say "yes"
or "no".
I was not surprised
when scores of noncommittal authority pleasing academicians
came forward to refute new hydrogen energy. It was rather like watching
reflexive behavior in laboratory animals. I believe the next regulatory
step will be to ban the production of these designs and devices outright.
We should be prepared for the corporate onslaught. I personally believe
that we should take our options as global citizens ... and cultivate
the new technology among disadvantaged nations.
LIGHTS OUT
One observes
that the scientific community automatically digests potential possibilities
whenever new unexpected discoveries manifest themselves. This again
is that rigid kind of scientific dogmatism which holds forth the graven
image of "the model" before the truth. The cultivation of
new discovery is an unknown art in our day ... except among a rare
few.
What is "unexpected
discovery"? Is it not the piercing reminder that theoretical
models can never replace or truly confine natural reality? Yet there
are those who have inwardly replaced reality with the model ... and
defend the model to the death. The bright light of any natural anomaly
or unexpected discovery is hated precisely because it is feared. The
model for many scientific personnel is secretly their "lifeline"
... their mantra. These personalities are easy to identify. Unfortunately,
in positions of power, they are formidable dissuaders of new technologies.
Newly recognized
phenomena and unexpected anomalies distinguish natural reality from
all models. The trained scientific historian scours the sometimes
rotting refuse of discarded periodicals with particular regret In
these discarded stacks lie observations of enormous scope which were
faithfully committed by their discoverers to the academic storehouse
in hopes that these would be honored, evaluated, and admixed into
newer awareness.
Why is unexpected
discovery feared and hated by financial dynasties ? New technology
spell. ruin for those whose statusquo policy has eliminated
them from the competitive race. Most very wealthy individuals are
never passionate Makers. Neither are they true philanthropists. While
removing the future on the one hand they make publicly acclaimed contributions
on the other. The banal misuse of powerful positions wields control
to stop progress.
Regulating what
discoveries are "permissible" precedes limiting "what
can be known". In other words the control of discovery precedes
the control of knowledge. The control of knowledge precedes the control
of awareness. Mod of the world's greatest scientific potentials lie
tragically forgotten in libraries throughout the world. It is indeed
remarkable to discover forgotten scientific history in the journals
and patent registers because such hinds" often answer current
technological problems from a more fundamental level than is imagined.
The libraries themselves are being systematically gleaned and old
"inadmissible" knowledge is being eradicated.
UNPRECEDENTED
MAGNITUDES
Several purposes
underscore this paper. The first is recounting the story of Dr. Farnsworth's
Fusor. The second concerns knowledge forgotten. We must never take
the study and preservation of archival records lightly. The third
aim encourages realization concerning "undefeatable" problems:
they are intended to stop our progress along false paths. The fourth
purpose lies in understanding the social ramifications of social dreams,
new energy, new technology, and the corporate regulators of these
social energies. The fifth is purely scientific: new hydrogen energy
has produced tiny poissors in the solid state (Iyengar, Srinivasan).
The advent of
new hydrogen energy research represents a natural phenomenon of unprecedented
magnitude ... a sociological event. Here we find ourselves in possession
of devices which operate on tap water ... and which produce prodigious
amounts of heat with insignificant electrical stimuli! The need for
palladium metal is not always a strict requirement ... titanium and
even nickel suffice under certain conditions
A mystical belief
of mine deals with the suppression of truth by corporate regulators
... and the global consequences of such suppression. Discovery itself
is a phenomenon. Discoveries are granted as tools of survival against
future needs on behalf of our race.
Of discovery
I may say that suppression and manipulation results in an unstoppable
reaction ... the frightening release of newer, simpler technologies
in every corner of the world. This phenomenal dispersion so assaults
wouldbe controllers that no one regulator may ever seize, quench,
or destroy the new technological species.
There are new
discoveries to be made everywhere ... they never cease appearing.
As stars which appear in the blackness of space, so too the miracle
of discovery endlessly manifests. This new energy revolution is itself
a phenomenon ... and win yield to those who pursue it the promise
fulfilled.
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