This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 1992, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
**EXTRA**
March 6, 1989: Arrangements are made between the U. and BYU to submit joint papers to a scientific journal on March 24. The U. will later decide to hold a press conference the day before submission, but does not tell BYU.
March 23: The press conference. In a packed foyer in the U. Chemistry Building, Pons and Fleischmann announce their breakthrough. The scientists try to issue caveats about how they suspect nuclear fusion but are not sure, but that is lost in the giddyness of the event. A press release on the work "means the world may someday rely on fusion for a clean, virtually inexhaustible source of energy.''
March 27: Pons says he understands scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have reproduced the experiment. A Los Alamos spokesman denies it. The U. later tries to set up a collaboration with Los Alamos, but it never comes off.
April 7: The Utah Legislature OKs $5 million for cold fusion research after U. officials assure legislators the money will not be spent until the claims can be verified.
April 10: Scientists at Texas A&M University and Georgia Tech University become the first to say they have verified parts of the U. experiments. Both will later withdraw their results because of experimental error.
April 24: The Department of Energy organizes a panel of experts to investigate cold fusion claims and tells its 10 national laboratories to step up efforts to produce cold fusion. The labs by and large have no luck, and the panel eventually concludes there is no evidence cold fusion exists.
April 25: Pons, Fleischmann and U. President Chase N. Peterson appear before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology in Washington, D.C. When asked what he wanted, Dr. Peterson suggests $25 million in federal money to start a fusion research center. The White House arranges a meeting with Pons, Fleischmann and Chief of Staff John Sununu but Sununu cancels, citing a "last-minute schedule change.''
June 28: General Electric Corp. signs agreement with the U. to have four GE scientists work with U. researchers. GE says a "licensing and funding agreement'' would follow if the experiments do produce a certain amount of energy. No GE money ever comes, and in 1992 GE scientists publish a paper saying Pons and Fleischmann misinterpreted their own data. Pons and Fleischmann deny it.
July 21: The State Fusion/Energy Advisory Council says cold fusion has been sufficiently verified after hearing from two scientists reporting success. The council never spoke to any of the scientists who did not think the experiment worked.
August 7: The National Cold Fusion Institute opens in Research Park after the U. signs a five-year, $1.1 million lease on the building.
Sept. 25: Hugo Rossi, interim director of the fusion institute, acknowledges that no institute scientist has seen signs of cold fusion, and the institute may close its doors if no one has any results by February. He later (Sept. 29) clarifies to say that there is no deadline. Rossi resigns a month later (mid-November without announcement, story published Nov. 20).
March 29, 1990: U. Physicists Michael Salamon, Ed Wrenn and Haven Bergeson publish a paper that says they could find no evidence of fusion in six weeks of watching cold fusion cells in Pons' laboratory in May-June 1989. Pons says those cells were not expected to produce fusion.
March 29-31: The first annual conference on cold fusion is held at the University Park Hotel. More than 200 scientists attend.
June (story published June 1, does not state when knowledge became public. Fritz Will, fusion institute director, said he learned of the source of the funds on May 30): A $500,000 contribution to the cold fusion institute that had been called an anonymous donation is found to have come from an internal fund at the U. That prompts 22 faculty members to call for a complete scientific and financial audit of the institute. U. President Peterson says there was no intent to deceive.
June 11: President Peterson announces his intent to retire in a year, saying the decision had nothing to do with cold fusion.
October (story published oct. 25 said pons requested sabbatical on oct.24. No specific date given on when his house was put up for sale.): Pons puts his Salt Lake City home up for sale, prompting speculation that he had left the U. He later requests a sabbatical to work in France. That is turned down, but the U. does agree to give him a research professorship that allows him to work elsewhere. In exchange, Mr. Pons gives up his U. tenure.
November (advisory council voted in late October -- exact date not published -- to begin the review on Nov. 7): The State Fusion/Energy Advisory Council appoints an independent panel to see if good science is being carried out at the institute. Pons, citing the Atomic Energy Act and advice from patent attorneys, refuses to detail his research. Panel members later conclude that the science they saw seemed solid, but they saw no evidence of nuclear fusion at the institute.
June 1991: The second annual conference on cold fusion is held in Como, Italy.
June 28: The National Cold Fusion Institute, its state funds dwindling and no sign of outside money on the horizon, closes its doors.
Jan. 2, 1992: A cold fusion experiment explodes in the Menlo Park, Calif., lab of Mike McKubre, killing fellow researcher Andrew Riley, who had worked previously at the cold fusion institute. An investigation finds the explosion had nothing to do with nuclear energy.
August??: Pons offers a deal to take over the patent applications the U. filed on his work, saying he has Japanese investors who will pay up to $10 million for licensing rights if any patents are secured. The U. counteroffers, but Pons withdraws, saying his offer was non-negotiable.
Oct. 21-25: Third Annual Cold Fusion institute.