ATOM SMASHER FOR U.S.

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28896, 16 May 1959, Page 13

ATOM SMASHER FOR U.S.

Huge Machine To Be Two Miles Long (N.Z Press Assnctatton—Copyright) j NEW YORK, May 14. President Eisenhower tonight announced plans for a 100 million dollars atom smasher machine two miles long, and by far the largest of its kind ever built. He said the huge new electron linear accelerator would be built at Stanford University in California. It was expected to take six years to construct, the President said.. The recommendation followed a proposal made by a panel of scientists which undertook a comprehensive review of the United States Government’s participation in the nuclear physics field, he said.

“Physicists consider the project to be of great importance,” the President said. “Moreover they believe it promises to make valuable contributions to our understanding in a field in which the United States already is strong, and in which we must maintain our progress. “Because of the cost, such a project must become a federal responsibility,” he said. The President made this disclosure in an address to a symposium on basic research at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. A memorandum issued by the Presidential press secretary (Mr James Hagerty) said Stanford University already had the largest operating linear accelerator —a 220-foot-long tube which produced 700 million electron-volt electrons. The new accelerator would be 50 times the length of the present one at Stanford. It was expected that initially it would generate 10,000 to 15,000 million electron volts. “Its technical feasibility has been adequately demonstrated,” the memorandum said. It would represent a major advance in the range of energy and intensity of electron particles available for physical research. The linear high energy accelerators now in use are primary tools of the physicists who explore the vast realm of the highenergy particles as they study the make-up of the tiniest details of matter. Mr Eisenhower said the large electron linear accelerator was regarded by leading physicists as a highly valuable contribution to advancing world knowledge in the field of energy. “Our science and technology are the cornerstone of American security,” Mr Eisenhower said in his prepared address. To preserve freedom in “an uneasy of disquiet and tensiori*’ would require the constant advance of American science and engineering, he said. “America must educate all the varied talents in our population to the limit of their abilities,” he said. “Here, what we seek is talent of the first rank. “We do not ask of man his race, his colour, his religion. In the field of intellectual exploration. true freedom can be practised.”