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The General Electric pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair tried
to go Futurama one better by offering the general public a
demonstration of honest-to-Pete nuclear fusion. If you
look very closely at the centre of the of the
plastic dome, you'll see a tiny metal and glass affair called a
theta-pinch fusion device (Oh, stop nodding, you didn't know what it
was either). That is where the actual fusion
reaction takes place. It wasn't much to look at; just a loud hum
as power built up, than a bang and flash as electric power blasted
through the tubes to fuse the odd atom. You had to take their word for
it, but there was some fusion going on.
Here's how the brochure described the show:
Everyone looks intently at the large quartz
tube atop the fusion equipment at the bottom of the centerwell. The
countdown ends. There is a sudden brilliant burst of light . . . .
and a crash of discharging high voltage that echoes and re-echoes
through the centerwell. You have just seen one of the first public
demonstrations of fusion -- the energy source that may someday
supply all the electricity we'll ever need. Much new knowledge, many
new skills, are needed before sustained fusion power can be realized
on a large scale. But General Electric has made a beginning . . .
You had to hand it to the exhibiters, though. They took an
otherwise relatively dull lab demonstration and turned it into a neat
little show with a suspenseful build up and a neat payoff. They
also took one look at the apparatus, said "don't think so," and built
a really cool Star Trekesque dome and platform around it with lots
flashing lights and readouts.
Now that is
how a fusion reactor should look, and everyone knew it.
When would this miracle of science be powering
our homes and industries? GE said twenty years. Twenty years
later, they predicted another twenty years and today they predict yet
another twenty years.
