STORY OF THE BOY WHO INVENTED TELEVISION
This segment of Farnsworth’s fusion story is continued from interviews with Steve Blaising…
WN: We did a phone interview with Larry Kattman, who retired from ITT in 1992; do you remember Larry?
Steve: Yes, Larry was one of the top financial people at ITT; quiet, well spoken, intelligent and respected.
WN: We recently interviewed Larry in a futile attempt to follow the fusion project’s money trail, but Larry said, “Nobody in Fort Wayne knew about that budget because it came directly from headquarters!”
Steve: Pem Farnsworth might know those numbers?
WN: Larry reminisced, “I met P.T. Farnsworth when he came to my office to use a large electro-mechanical calculator in there and then also when we flew together on the same plane to Washington D.C. and, while he (Larry) attended financial staff meetings, P.T. met with the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission). Larry said, “The fusion project was never discussed, but we did discuss that he was meeting with several MIT, PhD’s at the AEC.
Steve: Phil met several times with nuclear experts, and it was usually a struggle because their interests and budgets depended on fission and not fusion technology. Phil said, “Experts are only expert about that which has already been discovered.”
WN: Larry also recalled P.T. saying, “Our Fort Wayne Team is eons ahead of the MIT people doing fusion research by magnetic containment.”
Steve: Phil was convinced that magnetic containment was fatally flawed because the energy in would always exceed energy out!
WN: Larry also remembered P.T. telling him that although the projects out East had access to the latest government computers, he had Hans Salinger who was probably faster; who was Hans Salinger?
Steve: Hans was an eccentric genius at mathematics who sometimes walked around while he crunched numbers inside his head, and then after recording his answer, he had no idea where he was or how he got there? Once when Hans and Phil worked late Phil made the mistake of asking Hans for a ride home. Soon after Hans started driving Phil dozed off and when he woke up Hans was driving on a sidewalk on the South side of Fort Wayne. After they got the car back on the street and parked they had to ask a stranger to phone Pem and have her come pick them up. Another time, Hans wife was driving him to work and when she got caught in a traffic jam on New Haven Avenue in front of Phelps Dodge and stopped the car, Hans thought it was time to go in to work. He got out of the car and went inside Phelps Dodge, traffic started moving again so Hans wife drove off and left him, at P.D. At about 9AM the security guards at PD called ITT Personnel who called Phil, who called me and I had to drive over to PD and get Hans who always said, “Oh Mr. Blaising I’m so embarrassed”.
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