From what I understand from Sandbergs notebooks, he accidentally comes in contact with a mr. Chambers (no first name) of Imperial Paper Mills, Gravesend. He says he has been previously working on a similar device around 1930 (at the same time he was involved in experiments on radium together with Eve Curie (who to my knowledge did not engage in scientific research)).
It seems that mr Chambers steps in for Coler and continues the research for several years (at least up to 1954). He is supported by the british on a similar agreement as Coler was. At some point he designs a new model, claiming to have a 300 v output. There are some schetches and descriptions of it.
Then the notebooks ends and apparently the invention and its development is transferred to a military research fascility in Canada. The last letter I could find from the scientist working on it there, Mr Walter White (difficult to google), is dated 1969, only a few months before Sandberg dies.
This is a bit of a revelation, for me. I had assumed all military research into these devices in the UK had simply halted after Coler's death. After all, there were some in the Ministry who were already unhappy about funding what they would have deemed an "obvious hoax". Sandberg's "accidental" finding of Chambers is curious. The "Eve Curie" claim would suggest that Chambers was something of a fantasist - but, of course, being a fantasist doesn't rule out also having an ability to recognise odd things happening when messing around with electrical equipment. In some ways, a sprinkling of irrationality can help to stop people from thinking too logically, and can lead to unexpected discoveries. Maybe fantasists are also more ready to come forward and trumpet their "discovery" than most people - as they might not fear ridicule in the the same way as most of us.
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“Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn't be done.” -- Amelia Earhart
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