This article is about fusion.
And by fusion I don’t mean tilapia with miso rub sauce. You’ve been officially nerd warned.
One day in the year 1936, an inventor named Philo T. Farnsworth had a conundrum. He could continue working on his novel idea for a electrostatic fusion reactor, or he could work an another novel idea he had for an electronic gun that would spray a beam of electrons onto a phosphor-coated surface inside a vacuum chamber.
He decided to pursue the latter project and this is why he’s known in the history books as the Genius Who Invented Television(tm).
So what happened to his other invention? Farnsworth shelved it, and for a while the US dept. of defense took interest, but ultimately dropped the research. Over 70 years later, Farnsworth’s forgotten fusion reactor design is suddenly developing a storm of interest among fusion researchers, and for it’s promise of the previously unfathomable goal of practical fusion power.
Unlike typical fusion reactor designs, Farnsworth’s neither uses high powered magnets to jail ionized plasma, nor forces the reaction into inefficient little doughnuts. Instead, it electrostatically forces high temperature ions into a compact, spherical ball. This is a key efficiency, as all natural fusion reactors (stars) are spherical shaped.
In fact, a recent working prototype based on Farnsworth’s design — developed by physicist Dr. Robert Bussard has demonstrated a one-hundred thousandfold efficiencies over existing tokamak-style reactor designs, putting it within reach of the holy grail of practical fusion power.
Bussard gives an engaging talk about it to Google employees. “There’s billions of fusion reactors in the galaxy and none of them are toroidal-shaped”
P.S. while you’re busy reading this post, do also read about the pluckly little teenager who built a fusion reactor in his parent’s basement. 