Customer Reviews

TV's Forgotten Hero: The Story of Philo Farnsworth (Trailblazer Biographies)

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McPherson's book is profoundly disappointing.

In her own words, in a brief note at the end of TV's Forgotten Hero, she wrote, "Phil considered his fusion experiments the most important work he had ever done" yet McPherson has written only one short paragraph about his fusion work on page 82. In it, she wrongly states that Farnsworth "...couldn't..make other people understand his theories." She completely omits work on the Fusor that was done shortly before his death, and the possibility that AEC termination of funding for the Fusor (in favor of the Tokamak) may well have contributed to his depression, pneumonia, and death.

McPherson's book is obviously intended for young people, yet she completely misses the opportunity to explain nuclear fusion and how the Fusor works (which is not difficult to explain at a 12-year-old level). She omits the fact that over the past ten years, high school kids have been building working fusors; and omits all discussion of the Fusor's present Polywell incarnation, which promises the possibility of ultimately saving civilization from destroying itself. Instead, she inexplicably devotes more that 50 pages to the workings and development of Farnsworth's television, and dismisses his fusion research, saying his work "on military contracts...proved more practical than his fusion experiments."