Over the years, a project I undertook in high school has raised some curiosity when I have spoken about it. So, I am posting a few pictures of this 6" cyclotron - a working model of the much larger ones - that helped me win an undergraduate scholarship. The project took three years. Eventually, my cyclotron generated 0.6MeV protons which I measured as an electric current (a few micro-amps), and deflected onto a ZnS screen, which fluoresced with the beam's geometry.
The original outline for this project was published in a document by the University of California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL-467), entitled "General Recommendations for Design of Small Cyclotrons," by Louis Wouters, October 21, 1949. I built the first version according to these recommendations. The second version of my cyclotron incorporated a complete re-design of the vacuum chamber, ion source, and dee; and added a dummy dee, deflecting electrode and septum, and the ZnS screen. These changes increased the ion current and made it function more like a real atom smasher. The pictures below show the original machine as completed in 1968 in my parent's basement. The magnet steel and wire were donated (the wire by REA Magnet Wire Co., Inc.), and Washington University (St. Louis) loaned the vacuum pumps and gauges. John Hood, then director of the Cyclotron Department at Washington U., was my mentor on the project.
Electromagnet (32"X24"X8", pole diameter of 6") and high voltage oscillator (10KV at about 30MHz)
Control panel (control of ion source and magnetic field intensity, and monitoring other parameters)
Vacuum chamber (original design)
2000V, 1A power supply for the high voltage oscillator
Vacuum system (had to achieve 10-6 mmHg)
Coil winding setup (I included this to show that no one built this project for me)
Rough schematic of all components
(I apologize for not defining a cyclotron. Those of you who have a technical background will recognize most of the components in each of these pictures. The purpose of this page, and my portion of this web site, is to help facilitate communications with others.)
