The analysis of track chamber photographs using flying spot digitizers

A vast quantity of data pours from the experiments on particle accelerators throughout the world. For example, over 300 000 photographs per week came from the three bubble chambers operating on the CERN PS at the end of 1965. The conventional method of processing these bubble chamber photographs is for each one of them to be examined ('scanned') to see whether it records an interesting particle interaction. The interesting photographs are then passed to hand operated measuring machines to obtain precise measurements of the particle trajectories recorded on the film. Similar measurements are carried out on photographs taken in film spark chamber experiments. This article on the Flying Spot Digitizers at CERN describes one of the most fruitful attempts to speed and make more accurate the process of analysis of bubble and spark chamber photographs. There are two types of Flying Spot Digitizer at CERN — the HPD or Hough Powell Device (named after Professor Hough and the author who, together, initiated the development in 1959) and Luciole, a further development initiated by Professor Kowarski.