Topic: Phoebus

In the 1920s, major lightbulb manufacturers including General Electric, Philips, and Osram formed the Phoebus Cartel in Geneva to artificially limit bulb lifespans. Internal documents reveal the cartel established a 1,000-hour limit, down from previous standards of 2,500 hours, and fined members whose products lasted too long. This coordinated effort marked the birth of the growth economy based on shortened product life cycles.

Stanton Friedman details his professional work on nuclear fission rockets, specifically the Phoebus project tested at Los Alamos in the late 1960s. He explains that these rockets produced 4400 megawatts of power, significantly more than the Hoover Dam, using liquid hydrogen. Friedman advocates for nuclear fusion as the ultimate propulsion source for interstellar travel, noting its efficiency compared to chemical rockets.