Volume II - Building and Running the Laboratory, 1954-1965 To order this title, and for more information, click here
By A. Hermann L. Weiss D. Pestre U. Mersits J. Krige, Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences et des Techniques, Paris, France
Description The first volume of the History of CERN (published in 1987) dealt with the launching of the European Organization for Nuclear Research
covering the period 1949 to 1954. Volume II continues the history through to the mid-1960's, when it was decided to equip the laboratory
with a second generation of accelerators and a new Director-General was nominated. It covers the building and the running of the laboratory
during these dozen years, it studies the construction and exploitation of the 600 MeV Synchro-cyclotron and the 28 GeV Proton Synchrotron,
it considers the setting up of the material and organizational infrastructure which made this possible, and it covers the reigns of four
Director-Generals, Felix Bloch, Cornelis Bakker, John Adams and Victor Weisskopf.
Three considerations are relevant to the treatment
of the material in this volume. Firstly the political dimension, in the broad sense of the term, was no longer omnipresent as during
the process of creation. Alongside it scientific and technical determinations were at work. The second consideration is that the institutional
dimension was also inescapably present. Finally, there was no longer one dominant process in the organisation's life but several and
it was no longer possible to tell just one story. The authors therefore decided to focus attention on various aspects of CERN's life.
Part I attempts to describe the various aspects which together constitute the history of CERN and aims to offer a synchronic panorama
year by year account of CERN's many activities. Part II deals primarily with technological achievements and scientific results and it
includes the most technical chapters in the volume, chapters using as main sources publications in the open literature, internal reports,
and minutes of specialized committees or of divisional meetings. Part III aims to define how the CERN ``system'' functioned, how this
science-based organization worked, how it chose, planned and concretely realized its experimental programme on the shop-floor and how
it identified the equipment it would need in the long term and organized its relations with the outside world, notably the political
world. The concluding Part IV aims to bring out the specificity of CERN, to identify the ways in which it differed from other big science
laboratories in the 1950's and 1960's, and to try to understand where its uniqueness and originality lay.
Contents Preface. Remarks on the notes and bibliographies. List of archival sources consulted. List of abbreviations.
Part I. An Overview
of the First Decade of CERN. 1. 1955-59. Building the laboratory (J. Krige). 2. 1960-65. Running the laboratory (D. Pestre).
Part II. Physics and Engineering at CERN. 3. Some aspects of the history of high energy physics 1952-1966 (A. Hermann).
4. The 600 MeV synchro-cyclotron (U. Mersits). 5. The construction of the 28 GeV Proton Synchrotron and the first six years of its
scientific exploitation (U. Mersits). 6. The construction of CERN's first hydrogen bubble chambers (L. Weiss).
Collection of
Documents and Photographs of Historic Interest. Part III. Planning and Managing Research at CERN. 7. The CERN system. Appendix.
The ``European Study Group on Fusion'', 1958-64 (D. Pestre). 8. The organization of experimental work around the Proton Synchrotron
1960-65 (D. Pestre). 9. Planning the infrastructure for the Proton Synchrotron experimental programme (J. Krige). 10. The debates
in the Finance Committee and the Council over the level of the budget (J. Krige). 11. The contract policy with industry (J. Krige).
12. The second generation of accelerators for CERN: the decision-making process (D. Pestre). Bibliography for parts III and IV.
Part
IV. Concluding Remarks. 13. Some characteristic features of CERN in the 50's and 60's (D. Pestre). Appendices - 1. Organigrammes
of CERN: CERN divisions and their leaders. 2. Director-Generals and Members of the Directorate. 3. Member States and their Contributions
to the CERN basic programme. 4. Senior Office Bearers in the Council and its Committees. 5. Members of the SPC, up to 1965. 6. V.
Weiskopf's table of some important research results obtained at CERN or elsewhere in Europe in connection with CERN within the period
1960-1965. Who's who in the history of CERN (A. Hermann). Chronology of events (J. Krige and D. Pestre). Index.
Books and book related electronic products are priced in US dollars (USD), euro (EUR), and Great Britain Pounds (GBP). USD prices apply to the Americas and Asia Pacific. EUR prices apply in Europe and the Middle East. GBP prices apply to the UK and all other countries.
Home | Elsevier Sites | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Feedback | Site Map | A Reed Elsevier Company