| Description | Work on thermonuclear reactions at Imperial College was begun by G.P. (later Sir George Thomson) in 1945-1946. Its nature and development are clearly explained in a note by Thomson contributed to the Minutes of the Governors' Meeting, 25 February 1958, which appears as C.269. See also D.200, Thomson's letter and note to Blackett of June 1946 in which he explains his early ideas for a torus.
Blackett's own interest in the use of a magnetic field in fusion reactions seems to date from 1958. As always, he pressed on the research, producing copious notes and narratives incorporating new material as it came to hand, testing and checking his own and others' calculations and using the results for lectures, discussions etc. His lectures at the Tara Institute, Bombay, in February 1958 (C.271) represent Blackett's first presentation of the work of the Imperial College team, any of the notes and working papers being additions to and revisions of this.
The report by R. Latham and J.A. Nation in C.275 set out the conclusions of the work done in 1958-1959.
None of the notes in this section go beyond 1969; though Blackett lectured on 'Controlled fusion reactions' in 12961 (R.S. 85) there is no surviving material relating to that occasion. |