Erratum. The Ionic Centrifuge and Fusion Nuclear Power.

In one of my first papers before the National Academy of Sciences' I showed by six drawings the operation of an Ionic Centrifuge in two types of discharge. The first three are shown correctly with negatively polarized end plates and insulated cylinder. The last three are shown incorrectly with the end plates voltage marked positive. But the current shown is due to the excess of positive ions over the negative electrons. This is obviously incorrect. In Figure 5, for example, the current flowing to the upper end plate is shown to be equivalent to a positive ion current flowing down from the upper electrode, or an electron current flowing up to the same electrode. In an actual case we would get the course of the current flow shown in Figure 5, if we make the voltages shown on the left of Figure 5 to be -100 V, -90 V, etc., instead of the opposite values of +100 V, +90 V, etc. The voltage of the end plates should have been negative and not positive as shown. The figures would have been correct, if the voltages marked +100 V, +90 V, etc., as shown, had been marked -100 V, -90 V, etc. -With the course of the current reversed by reversing the potential on the end plates, a strong effect of the space-charge of the electrons on the nearly pure electron flow adjacent to the end plates will be introduced, and will greatly reduce the current density of pure electrons taken from the glow to the end plates. The only excuse I can offer for the bad mistake I made is that I wrote the paper while I was recovering from a stroke. The great reduction in the current density to the end plates caused by the reversal of the end plate voltage is important2 for the opportunity of using the space charge voltage as a countereffect in determining the current density at the electrode.