Farnsworth Fusor

A demonstration of how the plasma changes in a farnsworth fusor during the pump down process of the vacuum chamber. Also a demonsation of how the plasma reacts to a magnetic field @ 6:15.

Category:

Science & Technology

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• farnsworth
• fusor
• table
• top
• fusion
• reactor
• plasma
• magnets
• high
• voltage
• physics
• science
• Jay
• Howson

[bulletproof2353]

so besides looking pretty ,are there any practical applications for this?and how much different is this from the glass plasma balls that they sell at like spencer gifts,like the ones in the goonies in the attic,and at science musems,and whats in the glass,a total vaccum or close to it,or do you put some kind of gas in there?

[Jhowson4]

@bulletproof2353 Well if I were to boost the voltage and get a better vacuum system and use deuterium and tritium gas. I would be preforming significant levels of nuclear fusion.

Plasma balls have a chamber filled with neon and argon gas and use a HF power supply. this used a DC power supply.

In this particular video I am using air (nitrogen) as my gas, but I have run it using a small lecture canister of deuterium.

[ShylannaKdV]

Erm... isn't that helluvalot dangerous to do this in a glass bell jar? The fusion produces neutrons and - under certain conditions - x-rays. Both not very healthy.

[Jhowson4]

@ShylannaKdV The pressures and voltages that i am operating at are not really optimal for x-ray or neutron production. Sure I do get some fusion to actually occur (by some I mean one to three events per second (practically nothing here in the real world)) To get the levels that are any where close to being dangerous I require at least 40Kv input, and a vacuum pressure down into the microtorr range (4 orders of magnitude below my capabilities)

[ZamolxisReborn]

could you tell us your approximate vacuum pressure and voltage measurements?

just curious how much it'd cost me to build something similar....

[Jhowson4]

@ZamolxisReborn cost me about 250 bucks, but that was with borrowing a bell jar and getting a transformer and variac donated.

your other question is answered in the very beginning of the video, but here it is anyway,

voltage between grids ~15Kv

chamber pressure ~10^-3 torr

[Fusiontron]

@sparkyman400 Not in a meaningful way, but it can acheive fusion.

[sparkyman400]

interesting toy but what is the purpose of this? Can it produce electrical power in some way?

[tuseroni]

i want one just to say i have a fusion reactor in my house (omitting the fact that its a very small, very ineffectual fusion reactor)

[snedie69er]

WOURNSTRUM!

[JPINCHBECK1]

Fusion can occur at low levels and safely. You're absolutely correct. Everything depends on the plasma media, input,output. Studying the the actual moments of fusion is an instrumentation challenge at best, but there is a serious future in microreaction engineering for observing the phenomena experimentally instead of emperically through simulations. Making the reaction stable and profitable is it's own challenge. Keep at it. Check out Dr. Kulcinsky's work on He-3 if you haven't already.

[biloxipilot]

getting any neutrons?