History of Computers - Gamma Electric Cell
Intro
The basic idea of the Gamma-Electric cell was to convert powerful radiating energies into safe and useful energy sources.
Overview
The Gamma-Electric cell was patented by Henry Sampson in 1971. 
Henry Sampson attened Morehouse College, Purdue University, University of California, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Sampson's work in the navy landed him a job as the research chemical engineer at the U.S. Naval Weapons Center, China Lake, California, where his research as an inventor began. Henry Sampson was given a patent in 1971 for the gamma-electric cell, pertaining to Nuclear Reactor usage. How the Gamma-Electric cell device worked was by converting nuclear radiation into electricity without needing to go through a heat cycle. The Gamma-Electric cell is used to find radiation in the ground through a stable high-voltage output. The basic idea of the Gamma-Electric cell was to convert powerful radiating energies into safe and useful energy sources. Read more about gamma at FermiLab team member pages.
Significance
By converting powerful radiating energies into safe and useful energy sources, nuclear reactors could be used to make and consume its own fuel while running on waste product. Microsoft uses TerraPower, which is the nuclear reactor process, to develop the reactor and lifecyle of fuel. This is an effient choice by Microsoft because the reactor does not need refueling or waste removal until the end of the reactor's life and the end of a reactor's life is hundreds of years.
A common misconception is that Henry Sampson was the inventor of the cell phone, however, that was Martin Cooper.
References
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3591860.html http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/physics/sampson_henryT.html
http://gigaom.com/cleantech/terrapower-how-the-travelling-wave-nuclear-reactor-works/
