 The first attempts to build a practical fusion machine took place in the United Kingdom, where George Paget Thomson had selected the pinch effect as a promising technique in 1945.After several failed attempts to gain funding, he gave up and asked two graduate students, Stan Cousins and Alan Ware, to build a device out of surplus radar equipment.This was successfully operated in 1948, but showed no clear evidence of fusion and failed to gain the interest of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment.