Betatron / Cyclotron

On July 15, 1940, "the acceleration of electrons by magnetic induction was first accomplished by University of Illinois Professor of Physics Donald W. Kerst" in a device named the Betatron. During World War II, a later version of the betatron was "ferried by air to the Wollwich Arsenal in England...by physics graduate student H. W. Kock for radiographic measurements [and] after its war-time duties were finished, it was converted to the world's first synchrotron". The original Betatron is now in the Smithsonian Institute. [1]

The Betatron was originally installed at the Abbott Power Plant in 1942 and later moved to the newly-opened Physics Research Laboratory in 1947. The Physics Research Laboratory also later became home to a larger betatron in 1950. The early betatron played a signficant role in nuclear physics at theUniversity of Illinois, providing the basic research for 33 PH.D theses over 30 years of operation. [2]

From 1943-1957, a "fixed energy cyclotron" was operated, which was redesigned in 1957-1960 into a new "variable energy cyclotron...the first of its type to be operated in the United States". Known simply as the University of Illinois Cyclotron, it was located in the Nuclear Radiation Laboratory, across the street from the modern Loomis Laboratory and was finally decomissioned in 1969. [3]