Archives West, University of Utah (archiveswest.orbiscascade.org)

Investigator (STEP I), run 2026-10-08. Saved page text (evidence trail, not for publication) is in research/pages/. Findings are leads, not verdicts.

Searched

Google: "Philo T. and Elma G. Farnsworth papers" fusion Archives West University of Utah
Fetched: ark:80444/xv98312 (papers, MS 0648) and ark:80444/xv81082 (audio collection, 1960-1978)

Philo T. and Elma G. Farnsworth papers, 1924-1992, MS 0648, 96.1 linear feet, J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections [web: https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv98312].
Biographical note: "ITT management agreed to nominally fund his new controlled fusion ideas. He and staff members invented and refined a series of fusion reaction tubes called 'fusors.' Publicity about his activities persuaded ITT management to raise Farnsworth's salary and promote him to the position of director of research. For Scientific reasons unknown to Farnsworth and his staff, the necessary reaction lasted no longer than thirty seconds. In December 1965, ITT came under pressure from its board of directors to terminate the expensive fusion research and sell the Farnsworth subsidiary. It was only from the urging of President Harold Geneen that the 1966 budget was accepted ... One year later he was terminated and eventually allowed medical retirement. In the spring off 1967, Farnsworth ... moved back to Utah to continue his fusion research at Brigham Young University".
Container list: "ITT Technical Drawings, Mark II fusor and Iatron flood gun elements", 1967, Box 17, Folders 1-4 (and Box 16); fast-neutron survey literature (Box 72).
Audio collection (MS 0648 related): 1976 recordings "At Jim Heiniyo - Fusor Group", in which "One of them talks about the development of the Fusor".

Claim 7: the family-archive description (written by the archive from the family's papers) documents fusion reactions lasting up to about 30 seconds, funding pressure at ITT in 1965-1967, and continuation at BYU. "Self-sustained" in the book's sense is not what this record says; "suppressed through ITT" stands beside a documented budget decision. The deciding records: the Box 16-17 drawings and the research notebooks, with any neutron counts.