Slashdot Mirror
Columbia Holds Wake For Historic Cyclotron
Pickens writes "They called it leviathan, behemoth, Big Bertha. At 12 feet wide, rising 7 feet above the cement floor and weighing an estimated 65 tons, the Columbia cyclotron, the particle accelerator built in the late 1930s by Columbia physicist John Dunning, played a crucial role in the dawn of the nuclear era. Dunning's experiments verified fission, established many of its properties, and, most significantly, demonstrated that the rare isotope Uranium 235, and not the more common U-238, was the more fissionable form of the element. 'In a week or two, they will dismantle it, and they will sell it for scrap,' says George Hamawy, Columbia University's director of radiation safety. 'This is the last chance to see it,' Hamawy added as students held a wake and contractors arrived to remove the cyclotron. 'We're going to make two-thousand-pound sections,' said one contractor before taking the cyclotron's measurements. 'We'll start slicing on Monday.'"
A piece of history has never been so heavy.
Don't take my posts literally; it's just code to control my botnet.
With a little elbow grease, you can build a cyclotron at home. The concept is pretty simple. Two D-shaped conductors separated by a short gap.
Reviled editor michael reported on it back in 2002.
http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/20/1626204&tid=134&tid=14
Definitely worth trying out once.
Once.
Givin it's importance in the development of nuclear science, it might be nice to preserve it somehow I would think...
Mod parent down; he's unapropriate (think of the Godwin laws!), completly fails to nail that pathetic pun he might have been aiming for ("owning a piece of history..." would have definitly been better), is unfunny, and most of all he STOLE MY FIRST POST!
Don't take my posts literally; it's just code to control my botnet.
How about selling the scrap to Iran? They can add this to their existing "state-of-the-art" nuclear arsenal (which the country that literally floats in oil will only use for energy production purposes...) and justifiably claim that they now also have one of the pioneering pieces of nuclear tech in their arsenal...
No matter how large, complex, or beautiful anything we make is, it is all essentially disposable. We inevitably attach sentiment to things like cars or houses or boats or gigantic cyclotrons but they are just...things.
Look, the Navy has all this romantic imagery associated with plying the seas in deadly warships (read "Choosers of the Slain" by Kipling) but almost all ships end up as razor blades or sunk for target practice. Likewise a lot of us have fun tinkering with computers...but over the past 5 years haven't we all broken down and rebuilt assorted Frankenboxes for this project or that project a hundred times over?
It's the adventure of DOING stuff with the things that is important, not the things themselves. As impressive as the cyclotron is, it's the science and discovery that are really meaningful.
.. they DID send the good bits to the Smithsonian ..
--Q
I wonder how strong that magnet is.
I bet they could bring in more money if they didn't scrap the whole thing, but instead sold small slices of it. No way they could sell ~65 tons worth of slices, but they could get a lot more if they sold off some of the historic piece of equipment. I'd buy a slice.
1 - Dismantled cyclotron.
2 - Catapult.
3 - Orbital assembly robot.
4 - More catapult.
5 - ???
6 - Profit!!!
Proving once more that if your problem can't be solved by extensive use of catapults, it probably doesn't deserve being solved at all.
Think they'd let us purchase a small chunk for esoteric value? The machine itself isn't leaking radiation and I know there's a ton of nuclear physicists out there that would love a small chunk. Plus it'd prolly be worth more than selling it for scrap if they opened it to the scientific community.
The story is tagged as "hardhack" I suppose that's right, as in "hacked to pieces"
Still seems an inappropriate use of the tag...
Sheldon
Even if the post doesn't say so, I'd bet that this unit is shielded with a LOT of lead. If you have been tracking metals prices lately then you know how valuable this kind of "scrap" has become. At roughly $3k per ton, there is a lot of cash potential here. To quote a wise man: "It's the economy, stupid."
The bovine vulva (without even a dash of chilli sauce) munching bastards have taken away my tagging rights, so can anybody explain to me WTF this has to do with Battlestar Galactica?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Spencer R. Weart, director of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics, a private group in College Park, Md., said the only cyclotron that rivaled Columbia's in importance was at the University of California, Berkeley. There, he said, the school put one of the great magnets outdoors on permanent display.
That must make for some fun times, little cars suddenly veering off the road.
I work on the 12th floor of Pupin and I'm just now hearing about this. Perhaps I could sneak a chunk of debris. The larger cyclotron at Irvington has been dismantled and the concrete shielding is just sitting outside, rusting away. You can see it strewn about: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=nevis+laboratory&sll=40.855949,-73.927085&sspn=0.009186,0.023367&ie=UTF8&ll=41.02768,-73.873587&spn=0.000573,0.00146&t=h&z=20&iwloc=B
Enough geeks would be interested in owning a piece of scientific history that this would certainly make them a lot more money than scrapping it.
Let's say I had 100 beer cans from 1934, intact but opened. Would it, in any way, be a smart idea to sell them for the $2-3 in scrap metal? At the very least I could get $10 a pop on eBay from people who want to have a piece of beer history in their bars (private or otherwise).
Capitalism, people, capitalism! (And no, I don't actually have beer cans from 1934, so don't ask me. d: )
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
That's not a cyclotron. That's a cyclotron.</dundee>
One of the first Cyclotrons is on display, outside in the weather, at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, California. The 37 inch Cyclotron is big -- you can climb on it, although you'll get pretty rusty. (In fact, only the magnet's core is on display; the Cyclotron's Dees are missing). For a photo with seven Nobel Laureats standing in front of the ol' beast, see http://dsd.lbl.gov/Seaborg.talks/65th-anniv/27.html
Does anyone know if there's anything there in the basements of Columbia that can still be seen? Or how to get to it?
The death of a machine of this caliber is a significant event. Did they invite high ranking Techpriests during the wake? Was the Machine Spirit's pain eased through the proper invocations? If not, then I have a suspicion that there might be a taint of heresy in holding such a wake.
No, that's a Canadian cyclotron.
THAT's a cyclotron. Note the size difference.
Outside of Canada, you need a map to see the curvature.
I was expecting an IT department joke, saying something along the lines of the contractors beating the IT students and faculty at being the first to hack their cyclotron.
Or maybe a force joke, talking about how a portion of its magnet would be an attractive momento.
Hee-hee
Canadian boy think he have big weenie.
Goodness, he try too hard!
Everyone know Canada kids have only snow and wood and coal.
No more big men there.
Yes!
I say too!
Canada has - know you too three ate!
Canadans all bosteful no-nothings.
Better stick to polar bare, Mr. Canada !!
For a minute, I thought I read "Battlestar Columbia Holds Wake for Historic Cylon".