From: Jed Rothwell
* As far as I know, there is no evidence it was forced. Why would anyone force it? In 1928 I doubt anyone took seriously the possibility that fission or fusion could become a practical source of energy. I was thinking the original goal was for a source of helium, not energy, since the USA controlled the world helium supply. However in checking just now the Hindenburg did not go down until 1937. "Forced" was not the best wording, except in the sense that they were forced by the logic of finding a possible source of contaminating helium from air - which they claimed did not necessarily negate the positive findings in its entirety, but did cast doubt. I got the sense that they intended to attempt it anew with a better control - which never happened AFAIK. Apparently the "control" was inadvertently skewing results which were already at a level that was near their detection limit, so they retracted everything due to the faulty control, but not because they did not think it would work. However, as already noted, my memory on this episode is fuzzy. Jones
