The Infancy of Particle Accelerators: Life and Work of Rolf Wideröe

207 Pages·1994·5.55 MB·English

by  Pedro Waloschek (auth.)

The Infancy
of Particle Accelerators
Life and Work ofRolfWideröe
Compiled and Edited
by Pedro Waloschek
Rolf Wideröe
The Infancy
of Particle
Accelerators
Life and Work of RolfWideröe
Compiled and Edited
by Pedro Waloschek
11
V1eweg
Title of the German original edition: 'Als die Teilchen laufen lernten -
Leben und Werk des Rolf Widerăe'
This English translation is an updated and improved version of the
German original edition.
Translated by Karen Waloschek, London.
AII rights reserved
© Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, BraunschweiglWiesbaden, 1994
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1994
Vieweg is a subsidiary company of the Bertelsmann Publishing Group International.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted, mechanical, photocopying or
otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Typesetting and layout by Pedro Waloschek
Printed on acid-free paper
ISBN 978-3-663-05246-3 ISBN 978-3-663-05244-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-663-05244-9
Contents
List of Boxes ............................................................................... VI
List of Figures ............................................................................ VI
Introduction by Pedro Waloschek ..................................................... 1
Wideröe on Wideröe:
1 Family, Youth and Lord Rutherford ................................. 9
2 Karlsruhe - the Ray-Transformer ................................... 17
3 Aachen - the First Operational Linac ............................. 27
4 Cyc1otrons and Other Developments .............................. 39
5 Relays are Interesting Too .............................................. 48
6 Induction from Illinois .................................................... 59
7 The Hamburg-Betatron ................................................... 70
8 The Invention of the Storage Ring ................................. 81
9 Oslo - the Theory of the Synchrotron ............................ 95
10 Baden - Betatrons for BBC .......................................... 102
11 Turin - the Beta-Synchrotron ....................................... 116
12 ETH Zurich, CERN and DESy ..................................... 121
13 How Radiation Kills Cells-
the Two-Components-Theory ......................... 13 0
14 Some Retrospectives and Dreams ................................ 143
Chronological Survey ............................................................. 151
References ................................................................................ 170
Appendix .................................................................................. 177
1 The Storage Ring Patent ............................................... 179
2 The Synchrotron Patent ................................................. 183
Index ....................................................................................... 193
v
List of Boxes
1: Sir Emest, Lord Rutherford of Nelson .................................. 14
2: Cyclotrons und Synchrocyclotrons ....................................... 42
3: About Drift-Tubes and Waveguides ...................................... 44
4: Roald Tangen, Kerst and Wideröe ........................................ 60
5: The Many Names of the Betatrons ........................................ 66
6: About Max Steenbeck ............................................................ 67
7: The War ofthe Patents ........................................................... 68
8: The Mysterious Death-Rays .................................................. 76
9: Betatrons in Germany ............................................................ 79
10: Vacuum in Storage Rings ...................................................... 92
11: The Experts' Report ............................................................... 96
12: Betatrons and Industry ......................................................... 11 0
13: BBC-Betatrons from 1949 to 1986 ...................................... 114
14: The Success of the Megavolt Therapy ................................ 140
15: Wideröe's Life at a Glance .................................................. 146
16: Wideröe's Memberships ...................................................... 149
List of Figures
1.1 : Ragnhild and Rolf Wideröe 1992 ............................................ 8
1.2: RolfWideröe 18 years old ..................................................... 15
2.1: First sketch of the ray-transformer ......................................... 22
2.2: Explanation of the ray-transformer.. ...................................... 22
3.1: Wideröe's working area in Aachen ....................................... 28
3.2: The ray-transformer of Aachen .............................................. 31
3.3: Test set-up for the ray-transformer ........................................ 31
3.4: The linac proposed by Gustav Ising ...................................... 32
3.5: Principle of the drift-tubes following Wideröe ..................... 34
3.6: Wideröe's first accelerator tube ............................................. 35
3.7: Wideröe in front ofa model ofhis linac ............................... 38
4.1: Sketch of the first cyclotron of Lawrence ............................. 40
4.2: Rests of the first cyclotron of Lawrence ................................ 40
4.3: Different types of resonators .................................................. 45
4.4: The iris-loaded wave guide .................................................... 45
VI
5.1: Scheme ofWideröe's relay .................................................... 53
5.2: A photo graph of Wideröe's relay .......................................... 53
5.3: Ragnhild Wideröe in the 1930th ........................................... 56
5.4: RolfWideröe in the 1930th ................................................... 56
6.1: Scheme of Slepian's betatron idea ........................................ 63
7.1: A drawing ofthe 15-MeV-betatron in Hamburg .................. 72
7.2: A photograph ofthe 15-MeV-betatron in Hamburg ............. 72
7.3: Pole pieces and field distribution in the betatron .................. 73
7.4: The vacuum chamber of the Hamburg betatron .................... 73
7.5: Wolfgang Paul and Rolf Wideröe 1992 ................................ 78
8.1: A photograph of the AdA storage ring .................................. 89
8.2: Scheme of the storage rings of O'Neill ................................. 90
10.1: Scheme of a BBC-betatron .................................................. 105
10.2: The first BBC-betatron in construction ............................... 105
10.3: Principle of the two-beam betatron ..................................... 106
10.4: Betatron used for medical purposes .................................... 106
10.5: Scheme of the stereo two-beam betatron ............................ 107
10.6: Stereo two-beam betatron for material tests ........................ 107
11.1: The 'accelerating tube' of the Turin-synchrotron ............... 116
11.2: Scheme of the Turin-synchrotron ........................................ 118
12.1: A view ofthe tunnel ofthe CERN-PS ................................. 125
12.2: Start ofthe DESY synchrotron, with RolfWideröe ............ 125
12.3: RolfWideröe and Gus Voss in the HERA-tunnel.. ............. 129
13.1: Ionization effects of different radiations ............................. 134
13.2: Surviving cells after irradiation ........................................... 137
VII
Introduction
by Pedro Waloschek
The following autobiographical account of Rolf Wideröe's life
and work is based on manuscripts and letters written by hirnself,
most ofthem especially for this report. Data from audio and video
recordings with his illustrations and from my notes taken during
aseries ofmeetings between the two ofus were also included. Rolf
Wideröe gave me access to many of his publications and to other
documents from which I have extracted further information.
I have compiled, edited and, where necessary, put the texts in
chronological order. These were then corrected and supplemented
by Rolf Wideröe during the course of several readings. The
English translation was also checked by Wideröe and we were able
to add some improvements and corrections. This account there
fore stands as an authorised biography and is written in the first
person. Mrs. Wideröe's accurate memory was of great assistance.
The emphasis has been on RolfWideröe's life story and the first
developments which led to modem particle accelerators. Techni
cal and scientific comments have been kept as comprehensive and
concise as possible. For further details the reader is referred to the
many publications quoted in the text and to the extensive literature
available, such as the beautiful books 'The Particle Explosion' by
Frank Close, Michael Marten and Christine Sutton [C187] and
'From X-Rays to Quarks, Modem Physicists and their Discover
ies' by Emilio Segre [Se80], as well as the classic textbook
'Particle Accelerators' by Stan Livingston and lohn Blewett
[Li62] which all contain a great deal of historical information.
An important foundation for this report was provided by
Wideröe's extensive notes of a 1983 interview with the two
Norwegian physicists Finn Aaserud and lan Vaagen in Oslo. The
article they wrote on hirn appeared in the magazine 'Naturen'
1
[Aa83]. Wideröe kept arecord ofthe question and answer session
as weIl as of several observations made by his friends Olav
Aspelund and Olav Netteland who were also present (Gunnar
Thoresan, the First Curator ofthe Technical Museum in Oslo was
also at the interview). In 1991 Wideröe freely translated all this
and the Naturen article - into German [Wi91], added some
comments and partly modified it for use in this report.
The many documents on Rolf Wideröe which are kept in the
'History of Science Collections' of the Library of the 'Swiss
Federal Institute ofTechnology' (ETH) Zurich have been invalu
able. After all, he taught at the ETH in Zurich for twenty years.
Seventeen volumes comprise aIl publications and papers as weIl
as Wideröe's patents [Wi70]. Many other documents, such as
letters, manuscripts, photographs and audio and video tapes have
also been preserved. In future, aIl other relevant documents
regarding Rolf Wideröe's life and work will also be kept there,
including those which I have compiled for this account. The
Wideröe documentation at the ETH was founded by the head of
the 'History of Science Collections', Dr. Beat Glaus and is now
maintained and being extended by Mr. Morten Guddal. I am very
grateful to both of them, as weIl as to the archive' s staff for their
valuable assistance.
I have inserted boxes and a chronological survey which contain
some additional points of information. These are generaIly about
interesting parallel developments or events, but also include data
with which I aim to assist the reader in obtaining a better general
overview. Within my limitations I have tried to verify the data used
here by comparing them to various publications and by consulting
witnesses of the relevant historical events. In doing so I was able
to correct several errors which had crept into accounts ofWi deröe' s
life. I would be most grateful to receive any further corrections or
suggestions for improvement, and these should be forwarded to
my address: DESY, Notkestr. 85, D -22603 Hamburg. For any
errors which I have added during editing and correcting I beg
forbearance and accept fuIl responsibility.
2
While preparing this report I have had the encouragement and
active support ofmany ofmy colleagues as weIl as the Directorate
of the DESY research centre. Many friends and acquaintances
collaborated on my enquiries, among them Dr. Arnold von Arx,
Dr. Olav Aspelund [As82], Professor JeanPierre Blaser, Ing. Heinz
Bergmüller, Ing. DerekDarvill, Ing. ChristianFalland, Mr. Rüdiger
Giel [Gi93], Dr. Thomas Naumann, Mr. Klaus Seib, Dr. Sigmund
Nowak, Dr. Jochen Seibert, Ing. Alfred Stüben and Mr. Klaus
Thamm. Professor Roald Tangen helped me to clarify some
important historical details. Of particular importance were several
remarks of the late Professor Wolfg ang Paul and some of his
publications. Dr. Maria Osietzki [Os87] [Os88] and Mr. Edgar
Swinne [Sw92] [Sw93] also supplied me with highly interesting
data. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all.
From the beginning Mr. Wolfg ang Schwarz (Vieweg Publish
ers) supported me in the planning and editing of the book and the
publisher' s staff gave us excellent support during production. I am
very grateful to my daughter Karen for her careful translation and
patient updating and to Mrs. Gisela Lüscher, Mr. Derek Darvill
and Mr. Russell Bevington for their attentive proof-reading.
I would like to thank Mrs. Gabriele Heessel for transcribing and
correcting not only RolfWideröe's extensive, hand-written notes,
but also many hours of audio recording. And, last but not least, I
would like to mention that without the patient assistance and care
of my wife Edith this report would never have been completed.
However, before I let RolfWideröe speak for hirnself, I would
like to briefly summarize the highlights of both his life and the
contributions he made to research and technology; this is espe
cially for those readers who are not yet familiar with his work or,
so to speak, as a taster of the account that follows.
It was August 1958 when I first heard ofRolfWideröe. During
a meeting ofphysicists in Varenna on Lake Corno my friend Bruno
Touschek told me of a brilliant Norwegian engineer for whom he
had worked in 1943. This engineer had brought Touschek schnapps,
cigarettes and his beloved books after the Gestapo had imprisoned
3