The Farnsworth/Hirsch Fusor

The Fusor is a vaccum chamber device invented by Philo T. Farnsworth in the 1950's. An acceleration voltage (several kV) and the geometry of the electrodes cause so-called ion multipacting, and in this case concentration of accelerated ions in a small focus. This is called Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC). Using deuterium gas and high vaccum and acceleration voltage, energy in this focus becomes high enough to make fusion possible, resulting in a measurable flux of neutrons. The system is currently being (re-)examined by George Miley of the Univ. of Illonois. Have a look at other links, too.

The following texts were posted to the HV list by Richard Hull in oct - dec 1997. The picture shows the inner grid region of his working fusor (though not yet "fusing").


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Jochen Kronjaeger
Kronjaeg@stud-mailer.uni-marburg.de