[editor-surveyor]

"Tell me about these bent columns..."

I believe that it was 1989, or 1990, when two researchers, working on ideas similar to Pons and Fleischman's work, had made a tightly sealed vessel of about 1 liter capacity to contain their experiment. The experiment was only about 20 seconds old when the vessel ruptured catastrophically, killing both men and badly damaging the columns.

Nobody has ever fessed-up about what was in the vessel, but witnesses said that it was quite benign for the 24 hours that it had rested on the bench before being closed. It was fully self contained, and was not heated, or even connected to anything else.

[SunkenCiv]

While I don't follow CF, I also object to the witch hunt conducted against it in the name of federal funding of research. Fund cold fusion, cut some other research. Hot fusion research has been expensive, but has not produced much of anything besides a lot of test beds which never quite live up to expectations.

The War Against Cold Fusion - What's really behind it?
by Hal Plotkin

Philo T. Farnsworth turned to inertial containment to try to achieve controlled fusion, but died before achieving it. His project was abandoned, but not forgotten.

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The Boy Who Invented Television: A Story of Inspiration, Persistence and Quiet Passion by Paul Schatzkin

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