Before the invention of wire chambers, particles tracks were analysed on scanning tables like this one. Today, the process is electronic and much faster. Bubble chamber film - currently available - (links can be found below) was used for this analysis of the particle tracks.
Neutrinos and antineutrinos are ideal for probing the weak force because it is effectively the only force they feel. How were they made? Protons fired into a metal target produce a tangle of secondary particles. A magnetic horn like this one, invented by Simon Van der Meer, selected pions and focused them into a sharp beam. Pions decay into muons and neutrinos or antineutrinos. The muons were stopped in a wall of 3000 tons of iron and 1000 tons of concrete, leaving the neutrinos or antineutrinos to reach the Gargamelle bubble chamber. A simple change of magnetic field direction on the horn flipped between focusing positively- or negatively-charged pion beams, and so between neutrinos and antineutrinos.
LSD= spiral digital reader
The 10cm diameter chamber made by Charles Peyrou was the first liquid hydrogen bubble chamber built at CERN.
The tuning fork used to modulate the radiofrequency system of the synchro cyclotron (SC) from 1957 to 1973. This piece is an unused spare part. The SC was the 1st accelerator built at CERN. It operated from August 1957 until it was closed down at the end of 1990. In the SC the magnetic field did not change with time, and the particles were accelerated in successive pulses by a radiofrequency voltage of some 20kV which varied in frequency as they spiraled outwards towards the extraction radius. The frequency varied from 30MHz to about 17Mz in each pulse. The tuning fork vibrated at 55MHz in vacuum in an enclosure which formed a variable capacitor in the tuning circuit of the RF system, allowing the RF to vary over the appropriate range to accelerate protons from the centre of the macine up to 600Mev at extraction radius. In operation the tips of the tuning fork blade had an amplitude of movement of over 1 cm. The SC accelerator underwent extensive improvements from 1973 to 1975, including the installation of a rotating condenser instead of the tuning fork as the modulating element of the radiofrequency system (see object AC-027).
A device to convert light into an electric signal (the name is often abbreviated to PM). Photomultipliers are used in all detectors based on scintillating material (i.e. based on large numbers of fibres which produce scintillation light at the passage of a charged particle). A photomultiplier consists of 3 main parts: firstly, a photocathode where photons are converted into electrons by the photoelectric effect; secondly, a multiplier chain consisting of a serie of dynodes which multiply the number of electron; finally, an anode, which collects the resulting current.
One of the first PC used at CERN.4 pieces. Dimensions are of the largest piece. Weight is of the 4 pieces together.
<2> scintillators with their support.
The rotor of the rotating condenser was installed instead of the tuning fork as the modulating element of the radiofrequency system, when the SC accelerator underwent extensive improvements between 1973 to 1975 (see object AC-025). The SC was the first accelerator built at CERN. It operated from August 1957 until it was closed down at the end of 1990.