Accelerator Building
| Title | Accelerator Building |
| View | Cyclotron Operation 1 |
| Series | II: Buildings and Grounds |
| Description | A 2,000-ton magnet and two water-jacketed magnetic coils provide a pathway for the proton beam of the University of Chicago's 450-MeV (million electron volt) Synchrocyclotron. A thin vacuum chamber between the coils is where the beam is generated. Protons, basic particles in all atomic nuclei, are injected into the circular chamber's center by the ion source (here looking like a top hat). As the protons gyrate from the center along the spiral magnetic pathway, an electrical oscillator beats them to higher speeds. These have traveled 700 miles and are moving at top velocity, 75 percent the speed of light, when the outermost 170-inch wide track is reached. Targets to be bombarded by the proton beam are positioned in its path by a long probe, jutting here from the vacuum chamber to the right of the photograph. |
| Subject Terms | Particle accelerators | Nuclear physics--Research | Magnets |
| Photographer | Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation |
| Photograph Date | 1957-03-14 |
| Physical Format | Photographic prints; 19.0 x 23.5 cm |
| Location | 5604-5620 S. Ellis Avenue | University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois |
| Campus Grid | B03 |
| Collection | Archival Photographic Files |
| Repository | University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center |
| Image Identifier | apf2-00136 |
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