View into the cage of the 520 keV preaccelerator of the PS Linac 1

The "open pill box" (in the background at the left) contains the ion source, where for many years all protons accelerated at CERN were "born". It is directly attached to the acceleration column where the protons pass from 520 kV to earth potential. The "electronics platform" (big metal structure on insulating pillars in the middle of the picture, for details see 7403120 and 7403071X) contains all the equipment that has to be at the same potential as the source itself. The smaller metal box in the foreground is part of the "bouncer", which compensated the voltage drop during acceleration of a proton pulse. The high voltage generator (not included in this photo)was originally a Cockcroft-Walton column. In 1973 it was replaced by a Sames generator (see 7403074X). Visible at the bottom right of the picture is the conductor from the "Sames". The "old" 50 MeV Linac 1, the original PS injector built in the 1950s, was (since 1976) replaced by a new 50 keV linac (Linac 2). It had a 750 keV "Cockcroft-Walton" pre-injector (see 7602012X). In 1993 the electrostatic preaccelerator of Linac 2 was replaced by a radio frequency quadrupole (RFQ) preaccelerator. Linac 1 co-existed until mid 1992 (from 1982 onwards it was mainly used to inject "test particles" into the low energy antiproton ring LEAR). In 1984 the electrostatic preaccelerator of Linac 1 was replaced by a 520 KeV RFQ (see 8303511, 860561). Other related photos: 7403064X, 7403066X, 7403070, 7403071X, 7403073, 7403081X, 7403083X, 7403124