An Early History of LBNL by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg

Early Cyclotrons

I arrived in Berkeley in August of 1934. At that time Ernest was working with the 27-inch cyclotron, which was producing 3 million-electron-volt protons.

Five inch cyclotron held by Glenn Seaborg. 27-inch cyclotron in 1932.
Here I go back to the first operating cyclotron, the 4-inch cyclotron, that operated first on January 2, 1931 and produced 70 kilo-electron-volt protons. You'll see here that I'm holding this. I can prove that because I have the same watch on. Then in 1932 we had the 27-inch cyclotron. Lawrence moved to the old Radiation Laboratory that I'm going to show you a picture of in a few moments. He was assigned that building on August 26, 1931. That is exactly 65 years ago today.

Left to right: Jack Livingood, Frank Exner, M.S. Livingston (in front), David Sloan, Ernest O. Lawrence, Milton G. White, Wesley Coates, L. Jackson Laslett, and Commander T. Lucci.

And here he built the 27-inch cyclotron, of which I show you a picture here, that produced first protons and then deuterons in 1933. Here is a picture taken in 1933 of a number of the key people working with him at that time. I won't stop to read off the names, I'll let you do that. This 27-inch cyclotron was producing 3 MeV deuterons by the time I came here in 1934, and then 4 MeV deuterons the next year, then 5 MeV deuterons the next year, and by 1937, 6 MeV deuterons. Then he built the 37-inch cyclotron using the same magnet. This was a magnet with about 70 tons of iron in it, and that produced 8 MeV deuterons.

37-inch cyclotron. Berkeley, California. Deuteron-deuteron neutron source; Room 118, Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley (UCB). East Hall, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), where work with fast neutrons took place.
When I came to Berkeley I chose to do my graduate work really in nuclear physics. I was in the Chemistry Department and got my Ph.D. in chemistry, but in Berkeley you can do research in nuclear physics and get a degree in chemistry. I worked in the old Radiation Laboratory with a deuteron-deuteron source, 100 kilo-electron volts, producing neutrons by bombarding deuterium, deuterium oxide cooled to ice temperatures with liquid air, with deuterons. I measured the interactions of neutrons with a number of elements, and that was part of my thesis. I moved over to an old building called East Hall and finished my thesis work using a radium-beryllium source of neutrons.

Glenn Seaborg in the East Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in 1937 with neutron scattering apparatus.

Here I am with the apparatus and the lead shielding, and so forth, taken just about the time in May 1937 when I was finishing my Ph.D. research.

Here's a view of the campus at that time. This is the chemistry building and here is the old Radiation Laboratory. Actually, it's a little later because here is also the Crocker Laboratory and Lewis Hall. Here is the old Radiation Laboratory being torn down in 1959 to make room for Latimer Hall.

Chemistry buildings, old Radiation Laboratory, Crocker Laboratory, etc., 1940's.

Demolition of Old Radiation Laboratory, 1959.


37-inch cyclotron. Berkeley, California.	Deuteron-deuteron neutron source; Room 118, Radiation Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley (UCB).	East Hall, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), where work with fast neutrons took place.