Word: betatrons
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...over with high hopes for the Atomic Age. Already G.E. had committed itself to an extensive program of basic atomic research. At the Knolls, outside Schenectady, the company will build a 300-acre research center to house its dangerous new activities. Meanwhile, armed with their 100,000,000-volt betatron and other high-voltage machines, its scientists are studying the "meson," a mysterious, sub-atomic particle which may hold the key to a revolutionary course of atomic power...
Their fantastic energy is what makes them interesting. Even twenty billion volts is not the best they can do, and this is 200 times the energy of the champion electrons from General Electric's giant betatron. Cosmic rays can burrow hundreds of feet into the ground or penetrate 75 ft. of lead. Some, less energetic, are thought to be secondary particles scattered in showers when a primary particle hits an atom in the atmosphere...
...biggest week for nuclear physics since the Smyth Report came out. Scientists of the General Electric Co.' announced that their mighty betatron, which generates 100 million-volt X rays, had shattered not only atoms but also attacked the sub-atomic particles themselves. Bombarding neutrons and protons with their powerful X ray, the G.E. men had produced mesons*-particles whose mass is partway between a proton and an electron...
Besides tossing off mesons, the G.E. betatron has smashed nearly every type of atom to smithereens. The other great atom-smasher, the cyclotron, is used to shoot high-velocity particles at atoms. The betatron shoots pure energy in the form of X rays. When the X rays hit the nucleus of an atom, they act something like a red-hot poker thrust into a glass of almost-boiling water. The added energy entering the nucleus causes some of its particles to "boil off" like steam. To celebrate their triumph, the G.E. scientists were already busy last week building more & more...
After giving such fascinating hints about the talents of its betatron, G.E. retreated again into silence. Obviously, a gadget which transmutes elements so handily has more than a nodding acquaintance with nuclear fission, science's most secluded subject...