Kerst's betatron
Betatrón de Kerst
- Date
- 1940 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States
- Credited to
- Donald Kerst
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Donald Kerst built at the University of Illinois the first betatron that actually worked: a circular accelerator that uses a varying magnetic field to bring electrons to energies far beyond a simple electron gun, keeping them in a constant-radius orbit.
Max Steenbeck had patented a betatron design in Germany in 1935 and claimed to have built a working machine, but that claim was never verified; the historical consensus credits Donald Kerst with the first betatron that actually worked, in July 1940.
What it led to
- Electron accelerators for radiotherapy and research
- Development of synchrotrons