The history of the reversed field pinch

Summary Form only given, as follows. The history of the reversed-field pinch (RFP) from the earliest experiments, reported in 1958, is briefly described. It was not until 1974 that J.B. Taytlor, with this theory of relaxed states, explained the spontaneous generation of the reversed field. This theory showed that the reversed-field configuration is a minimum energy state to which the plasma relaxes naturally by a process involving the breaking and rejoining of magnetic field lines. During the 1980s there was a modest expansion of RFP research, with fifteen machines operating or being built, including three large devices. In the last decade, there has been an almost tenfold increase in the temperature, to >