The Last Link in the LINACOn February 10, 1966, a ceremony was held at SLAC to place the last bolt -- a gold-plated one -- in the two-mile-long accelerator, making the underground device one physical unit for the first time. Photographs of the event were discovered in the SLAC Archives in 1996, along with a draft press release that reads, in part: Accompanied by Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Director W. K. H. Panofsky, Mr. L. A. Mohr, Manager of the Palo Alto Area Office of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (supporting the project) wielded the wrench for the final securing. (SLAC Photo: M1889-2)Immediately after the bolt was secured, the group that had gathered for the ceremony posed for this photo. They are, (left to right) Fred Pindar, Matt Sands, Cliff Rasmussen, Larry Mohr, Bob Nicholson, Pief Panofsky, David Chambers, Bob Moulton, Richard Fuendeling, Arnold Eldredge, and two as-yet unidentified devotees of particle physics. (SLAC Photo: M1889-4)
(If you know the name of -- or are yourself -- one of the two unidentified persons in the first photograph, please contact the SLAC Archives.) Even though construction was completed in February, sectional testing of the linac continued through May of 1966, when the first beam successfully traveled the entire length of the linac. -- Return to top --
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