The term "cold fusion" was a very awkward term in academia because it often didn't have any interesting connotations attached to it.
This concept was first introduced in the 1920s. Two German chemists Panis and Peters proposed in 1926 regarding the idea of nuclear fusion at room temperature. They found helium permeate the asbestos by passing hydrogen through the heated palladium asbestos. They then confirmed that the fusion reaction occurred and published the research in Nature.
Once this thesis was published, it immediately caused a huge sensation. However, it was quickly criticized by Rutherford, the then president of the Royal Society. Actually, in the follow-up experiments, the two were not able to repeat the success of the experiment. Finally, the whole incident was identified as a mistake, and Nature retracted the thesis.
