Before the days of electronic detectors, visual techniques were used to detect particles, using detectors such as spark chambers and bubble chambers. This plexiglass lens was used to focus the image of tracks so they could be photographed.

Flash tube used in Gargamelle. Gargamelle was the name given to a big bubble chamber built at the Saclay Laboratory in France during the late 1960s. It was designed principally for the detection at CERN of the elusive particles called neutrinos.Gargamelle is on display at CERN in the Microcosm garden.

Was used in ISR (Intersecting Storage Ring) split field magnet experiment. Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.

The UA2 central calorimeter measured the energy of individual particles created in proton-antiproton collisions. Accurate calibration allowed the W and Z masses to be measured with a precision of about 1%. The calorimeter had 24 slices like this one, each weighing 4 tons. The slices were arranged like orange segments around the collision point. Incoming particles produced showers of secondary particles in the layers of heavy material. These showers passed through the layers of plastic scintillator, generating light which was taken by light guides (green) to the data collection electronics. The amount of light was proportional to the energy of the original particle. The inner 23 cm of lead and plastic sandwiches measured electrons and photons; the outer 80 cm of iron and plastic sandwiches measured strongly interacting hadrons. The detector was calibrated by injecting light through optical fibres or by placing a radioactive source in the tube on the bottom edge.

Wire chamber

Gargamelle was the name given to a big bubble chamber built at the Saclay Laboratory in France during the late 1960s. It was designed principally for the detection at CERN of the elusive particles called neutrinos.In 1973, André Lagarrigue and his colleagues found evidence for neutral currents in Gargamelle bubble chamber pictures. Gargamelle is on display at CERN in the Microcosm garden.

prototype of the endcap of CMS (compact muon solenoid), a detector for the LHC.

Three pieces. Wire chambers used for the beams at CERN's Proton Synchrotron accelerator in the 1970s. Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber Multi-wire detectors contain layers of positively and negatively charged wires enclosed in a chamber full of gas. A charged particle passing through the chamber knocks negatively charged electrons out of atoms in the gas, leaving behind positive ions. The electrons are pulled towards the positively charged wires. They collide with other atoms on the way, producing an avalanche of electrons and ions. The movement of these electrons and ions induces an electric pulse in the wires which is collected by fast electronics. The size of the pulse is proportional to the energy loss of the original particle.