LRL Accelerators, The 184-Inch Synchrocyclotron

LRL Accelerators: The 184-Inch Synchrocyclotron comes from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California. The contents list names, among others, Principle of Operation of a Conventional Cyclotron, The Principle of Phase Stability, and Cyclotron Experiments in Nuclear Physics, Biophysics and Nuclear Chemistry. The text says that Dr. E. O. Lawrence's success with the 60-inch cyclotron in 1939 led him to propose a much more powerful accelerator.

Construction on the cyclotron was therefore halted, but because of interest in separating the isotopes of uranium by the electromagnetic method, work on the giant magnet continued at an even faster pace. The magnet is said to be one that would contain 3700 tons of steel in its yoke and pole pieces, and 300 tons of copper in its exciting coils. Table I compares external-beam energy and current for a synchrocyclotron and a conventional cyclotron, with maximum beam energy for the 184-inch machine listed as 730, 460 and 910 Mev for protons, deuterons and alpha particles.