Indeed, the electrons are are blown away from the cathode (the virtual cathode in this case. They would ground on the anode,or wall at high energy. This is whathappens in a conventional fusor also. The elmore Tuck and Watson varient, uses a anode grid to accelerate the electrons towards the center. In this case it is the ions that are blown away. if they reach regions outside the radius of the anode.ohiovr wrote:Wouldn't the electrons be blow away from the cathode, and sucked into the anode in the fusor? Forget about polywell we are talking about the classic fusor.
What makes the Polywell different is that more electrons are forced into the machine- either accelerated by the anode or by having high energy electron guns and a grounded magnet grid (anode of 0 Volts if you wish) This forms a virtual cathode. This accelerates the ions towards the center and contains them. Of course the electrons are repulsed by the virtual cathode- other electrons. As such they are accelerated to the grounded or anode grid located on the outside of the machine. This is where the magnetic fields come into play, they turn the electrons before they reach the anode. The electrons are turned ~ 180 degrees each time they slam into the magnetic field, then fly towards the center again at high speed. The mutual electron repulsion (1 ppm greater than the ions present) again slows them till they reverse/ deflect from the center and again fly/ accelerate towards the magrid, where the magnetic field ....
The electrons are contained by the magnetic field. The ions are contained by the virtual cathode, just like in a normal fusor, except there is no wire for the ions to hit and lose energy to. This serves as separate mechanisms for containing the two contrary species, and benefits over just magnetic containment of both species because ions are contained relatively poorly by magnetic fields, electrons are contained well by magnetic fields. It is the best of both worlds.
Dan Tibbets