Ronald Richter

Ronald Richter (n. November from October of 1909 in Falkenau an der Eger , Austria -. F the 29 of December of 1991 in Viedma , Argentina ) was a scientist Austrian , nationalized Argentine who became famous in connection with the Huemul Project of Argentina, an attempt to generate energy through nuclear fusion in the 1950s , during the presidency of Juan Domingo Perón . Who announced that Richter’s project would distribute cheap energy in half-liter and one-liter bottles, not unlike the milk bottles used at the time. ¹

Nationality

Source German , Richter would have been born in Falkenau an der Eger , during the rule Austro - Hungarian of this region of the Sudeten Czechs is now part of the Czech Republic (where it was known until 1948 as Falknov nad Ohří , then renamed Sokolov ).

Different sources attribute to Richter the Austrian or German nationality. After the defeat of Adolf Hitler in 1945 emigrated to Argentina, where it took the citizenship of this nation. This nationality was obtained when President Juan Perón left aside Argentine laws. ¹

Studies

Richter attended the Carolina University of Prague, although the sources differed on the type and depth of his studies. According to Gambini, Richter obtained a doctorate in natural sciences in 1955. ¹Other authors, on the other hand, claim that he did not obtain his doctorate because he misinterpreted the results of his investigations: he believed he had found a source of delta rays on the surface itself Of the Earth , although in fact it was detecting the dispersion at ground level of x - rays coming from other sources.

In this sense Richard Gans stated:

Richter elaborated a thesis in the German University of Prague, in which he proposed to detect “delta rays” emitted from the Earth. Professor Heinrich Rausch von Traubenberg disagreed with the project. The “young genius” retired to work elsewhere and ended up graduating in a different specialty.

Kurt Sitte supports a complementary version of the facts:

(…) when I was an assistant to Professor Furth in the Department of Experimental Physics at the University of Prague, [Richter] tried to interest us in a fantastic project. He had read (not in a scientific publication, of course) about the discovery of a mysterious radiation, the “terrestrial rays” that radiated from within the Earth and caused an immense variety of fabulous effects. He wanted to investigate this phenomenon. He was very excited about the idea and it was very difficult to convince him (if we really succeeded) that the “evidence” quoted was spurious.

Mariscotti, 1985, p.277-278

His thesis was never published. ²

Works

Europe

When Richter worked in Germany in the period 1939 - 1943 , he met Kurt Tank , a renowned aeronautical engineer, and later emigrated to Argentina, helped by the government of General Peron , within the plan of industrialization and military arms of the nation, under The false name of Peter Matthies. ³

Argentina

Recommended to Peron by Kurt Tank, Richter moved to Argentina and was received, according to Gambini, by German industrialist Augusto Siebrecht, former Nazi spy. ¹ He led Richter to Cordoba , where Kurt Tank was developing aircraft. Peron had employed Kurt Tank to design and produce aircraft, and Tank was interested in Richter’s proposal to use nuclear power to propel them. When after a brief time Richter was introduced to Peron he proposed a program that would later become known as the Huemul Project : energy production through controlled nuclear fusion reaction. Peron decorated Richter with the Peronist Medal . ⁴ A supervisory commission composed of scientists José Antonio Balseiro and Mario Báncora , among others, ⁵ invalidated Richter’s arguments with theoretical grounds and showed that they had no device there that could generate a oscillating magnetic field to achieve a resonance effect With the necessary frequency of precession of Larmor as Richter maintained. Balseiro recounted how Richter’s experiments and verifications had failed and asserted that it was false that he had succeeded in generating any reaction of a controlled thermonuclear nature and his opinion was that Richter had shown a surprising ignorance on the subject. ⁶ Báncora also denounced the deception and the unfeasibility of the fraudulent project demonstrating it experimentally in the School of Mechanics of the Navy and whose report was decisive. ⁷ The project turned out to be fraud and the government had to suspend it. ^{Referring to Fig.}

References