The Pinch

clipped from focusfusion.org The baby is born!  After seven years of theoretical work and raising money, five months of design, five months of construction and assembly, and a week of testing, LPP now has a functioning dense plasma focus, Focus-Fusion-1. The first shot, using helium as the fill gas, was achieved at 5:29 PM today, Oct.15, and the first pinch was achieved at 6:04 PM on the second shot. The fact that a pinch was achieved so soon was evidence of the soundness of the design.  The pinch is clearly evident in the voltage probe curve, below, of the sixth shot. The first peak is when the machine turns on, while the second, higher, peak in voltage is from the energy transfer into the pinch region and the plasmoid.