Cartoons by design

Photo: Diana Rogers, SLAC

Cartoons by design
As a mechanical designer, Catherine Carr's first big undertaking at SLAC was a vacuum transporter system that let operators install electron cathodes, under vacuum, into the injector gun of the Stanford Linear Collider. The previous system of exposing the gun to air in order to replace the cathode required shutting down the collider for long periods. By eliminating the need to expose the cathode gun to air, the new equipment increased the uptime of the accelerator and improved its most important characteristic, high electron polarization.

Over the course of the project, Carr would frequently leave her office to visit her team members in Building 40. Each time, she spent a few minutes adding to a cartoon drawing on a chalkboard located outside Room G137.

"It was a way to channel lots of nervous energy," she says.

The chalk-and-pastel work remains today. Pictured are project supervisor Bob Kirby and machining supervisor Jerry Collet driving a caravan to the edge of contemporary knowledge, with the magician's rabbit —and SLC Injector project manager—Lowell Klaisner along for the ride. A young woman peeks out of a window below. "I'm running away with the circus, and I'm pretty happy," says Carr. 

Krista Zala