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The first ever circular particle accelerator, a cyclotron, was just a few centimetres in diameter. Invented in 1930 by Ernest Lawrence, it was the fore-runner of today's huge machines.

Antiproton target used for the AA (antiproton accumulator). Making an antiproton beam took a lot of time and effort. Firstly, protons were accelerated to an energy of 26 GeV in the PS and ejected onto a metal target. From the spray of emerging particles, a magnetic horn picked out 3.6 GeV antiprotons for injection into the AA through a wide-aperture focusing quadrupole magnet. For a million protons hitting the target, just one antiproton was captured, 'cooled' and accumulated. It took 3 days to make a beam of 3 x 10^11 - three hundred thousand million - antiprotons.

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.

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).

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.

This magnetic focusing horn was used for the AA (antiproton accumulator). Its development was an important step towards using CERN's Super Proton Synchrotron as a proton - antiproton collider. This eventually led to the discovery of the W and Z particles in 1983. Making an antiproton beam took a lot of time and effort. Firstly, protons were accelerated to an energy of 26 GeV in the PS and ejected onto a metal target. From the spray of emerging particles, a magnetic horn picked out 3.6 GeV antiprotons for injection into the AA through a wide-aperture focusing quadrupole magnet. For a million protons hitting the target, just one antiproton was captured, 'cooled' and accumulated. It took 3 days to make a beam of 3 x 10^11 -, three hundred thousand million - antiprotons.

The pulse of a particle accelerator. 128 of these radio frequency cavities were positioned around CERN's 27-kilometre LEP ring to accelerate electrons and positrons. The acceleration was produced by microwave electric oscillations at 352 MHz. The electrons and positrons were grouped into bunches, like beads on a string, and the copper sphere at the top stored the microwave energy between the passage of individual bunches. This made for valuable energy savings as it reduced the heat generated in the cavity.

This is a slice of a LEP dipole bending magnet, made as a concrete and iron sandwich. The bending field needed in LEP is small (about 1000 Gauss), equivalent to two of the magnets people stick on fridge doors. Because it is very difficult to keep a low field steady, a high field was used in iron plates embedded in concrete. A CERN breakthrough in magnet design, LEP dipoles can be tuned easily and are cheaper than conventional magnets.