Bob,
The Holmlid device with its massive output (claimed) needs only to be
nearby, so that some of its muon production ends up in the Fusor. It
need not be attached at all. In fact, the risk would be too many muons.
Presumably the muons would go through the walls of the Fusor so even a
thru-port is not needed.
Obviously, the muon production is the big mystery of the Holmlid device
to be solved, but in general a Fusor could be the easiest and perhaps
the cheapest way to confirm muons.
Bob Higgins wrote:
The reasons that fusor's work is that they produce a near singularity
in energy density/confinement in the center of the device. If you put
anything anywhere near the center of the fusor, it would screw up the
3D radial symmetry of the fields and the singularity-like confinement
may not occur. I think it may be a significantly different design to
incorporate Holmlid's metal onto which his UHD accumulates.
On a slightly different slant -- further thinking about "the
borderline" between hot and cold fusion, in the context of the
Holmlid device (being a little of both), brings up another
overlooked approach. Or maybe I have missed it and Holmlid will be
doing this as his next hat trick.
A streamlined Holmlid laser unit could be combined in the role as
hot fusion driver for MCF (muon catalyzed fusion) but that
normally would involve a huge expense - maybe a Tokomak. Yet a
quicker pathway to small-scale hot fusion is almost too obvious,
thanks to Philo.
The goal would be to convert the Farnsworth Fusor into a muon
catalyzed fusion device by placing a Holmlid laser subsystem
nearby (in order to feed muons into the convergence zone of the
Fusor). This could actually be tried on almost any existing
Fusor... even without a thru-port... in order to test the concept.
If it works, more lasers could be used, placed around the
circumference in an optimized way. It is assumed that most muons
would not be absorbed but even a few should be noticeable ...
since actual deuterium fusion is already taking place at a low
rate in the Fusor. If this rate is multiplied then viola ... we
have made a giant step with little expense.
There is a thread on Fusor.net on "muon injection", but it does
not seem to mention Holmlid's easy path to making muons (claimed).
Other threads mention Holmlid, but not the obvious tactic of using
the two kinds of devices together. How could they miss this?
http://www.fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5061
<http://www.fusor.net/board/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5061>
The Fusor is the most compact way ever devised to produce hot
fusion and they are inexpensive to build - but below breakeven by
a large factor and do not scale up. Holmlid believes that he is
already seeing thermal gain This is a great match with instant
scale up.
A Fusor could be equipped with one or more Holmlid laser setups
could show massive synergy if the claims of muons are accurate -
and best of all, the increased rate of neutron production would be
instant proof of concept. In fact this could be the cheapest way
to confirm Holmlid and push the technology forward at the same time.
Caveat. Even school-boy- built Fusors have produced dangerous
levels of neutrons. Shielding would be necessary ... but Borax is
cheap.
