In the tunnel
While looking through the Aug 07 issue of symmetry, I enjoyed reading Glennda Chui’s article “The particle physics life list.”
There’s a picture of “Hans Bethe and friend” touring what is now the CESR tunnel at Cornell University’s Laboratory for Elementary-Particle Physics. At the time the photograph was taken, however, it was the tunnel of the 10 GeV Synchrotron at the Laboratory of Nuclear Studies.
The picture’s label may have been shortened for brevity or humor, but I suspect many of your readers may not have recognized the friend. He was Boyce “Mac” McDaniel. For many years Mac was the director of LNS, having succeeded Robert R. Wilson to that position.
Unfortunately, that particular Life List entry is no longer a possibility, although tours of the tunnel can be arranged. The construction of the CESR storage ring in the tunnel resulted in many obstructions, so many that the bicycles finally were retired after more than 30 years of yeoman service. In the final years of their use, they primarily were used to speed travel from Wilson Lab through the cross-tunnel to the CUSB “north-area” experiment under Tower Road.
Selden E. Ball, Jr., Cornell University
Click here to download the pdf version of this article.