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Word: perhapsatron (lookup in dictionary) (lookup stats)
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WHEN scientists, a cautious lot, are on the frontier of knowledge, they are fond of the word "perhaps." At Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory they like the word so much that they named one of their most exciting machines the Perhapsatron S-3. Perhaps the Perhapsatron and its descendants will win from the world's oceans enough energy to fill man's electric power needs for as long as the solar system exists. For the latest steps in taming the H-bomb for peacetime power, see SCIENCE, Toward H-Power...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: A Letter From The Publisher, Feb. 3, 1958 | 2/3/1958 | See Source »

...most impressive U.S. thermonuclear work was done at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory with a machine called Perhapsatron S-3. Its doughnut is made of glass surrounded by copper, and is about as big as a scooter tire, with its minor diameter (through the dough) about 2 in. compared to ZETA's 39 in. The temperature of its pinch is higher than ZETA's (about 6,000,000° C.), but the pinch lasts only a few millionths of a second, about one-thousandth as long as ZETA's. Other thermonuclear machines at Los Alamos use short, straight...

Author: /time Magazine | Title: Science: Toward H-Power | 2/3/1958 | See Source »

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