LBNL Image Library -- Collection BERKELEY-LAB/ACCELERATORS/ELECTRON-SYNCHROTRON

Image File: 97502160
Title: Electron Synchrotron
Description: Back in the early days of the synchrotron, Dr. Edwin McMillan sets up an experiment. Those who worked with this accelerator will remember especially one feature: The machine operated with such a deafening noise that visitors imagined they could hear atoms being smashed. When it went into operation in 1948, the electron synchrotron was the most powerful electron accelerator in the world, boosting elections to 340 MeV. The synchrotron was based on a revolution concept, called the theory of phase stability, which was advanced independently by LRL Director Edwin McMillan and V. Veksler, a Russian physicist, toward the end of World War II. Design of the synchrotron was started under Edwin McMillan's direction in 1945. It first yielded a beam on December 16, 1948. The synchrotron was involved in the first discovery of a particle by means of an accelerator. In 1950, experiments by Steinberger and Panofsky provided evidence for the neutral pi meson.The machine was shut down in 1960.
Citation Caption: Magnet, Vol. 4, No. 2, February 1960, p. 3
TEID Doc ID: XBD9705-02160.TIF