This issue of the LBL NEWSMAGAZINE represents a radical departure from our usual content and format. In recognition of the Laboratory's fiftieth anniversary, which is being marked by a series of special events, lectures, exhibits, and symposia in Berkeley this Fall, we are devoting the entire Fall 1981 issue of the Newsmagazine to a brief history of the formative period of the Laboratory, entitled Lawrence and his Laboratory: Nuclear Science at Berkeley.
What makes this account of the Laboratory's early years somewhat unusual, as celebratory handouts go, is that it was written not by our staff, or by public-relations-minded administrators, or even by scientists associated with the Laboratory, but by a team of academic historians associated with the University of California's Office for History of Science and Technology. As such, a rather different view of the Laboratory is presented than the one we might have written ourselves, but one which has the undeniable virtue of giving us a new and different perspective, a glimpse of ourselves as others see us. The narrative also sets some of the events that we have lived through in a wider context, pointing up the hidden relationships that may exist between advances in science and political, cultural, and economic events.
The brief history that is presented here is actually part (not exactly an excerpt from, but more exactly a foretaste of a much longer and more comprehensive history of the Laboratory now in preparation by the same three historian-authors. They include John L. Heilbron, professor of history and director of the University's Office for History of Science and Technology; Robert Seidel, assistant professor of history at Texas Tech University (currently on loan to Berkeley for the project); and Bruce Wheaton, assistant director of the Office for History of Science and Technology. All three have doctorates in the history of science (Heilbron and Seidel from Berkeley; Wheaton from Princeton) and are the authors of numerous books and articles in the field.
| UC's Office for History of Science and Technology is housed, appropriately enough, in Steghens Hall, a charming survivor of the older and more gracious school of academic architecture at Berkeley. Above, project director John Heilbron (at right), discusses the LBL history project with his collaborators Bob Seidel (left) and Bruce Wheaton. |
Is it possible to write authentic scientific history of events so recent as those that unfolded at the Laboratory during the past fifty years? Maybe, maybe not. Heilbron and his collaborators will find out over the next three years, the period they expect to spend researching and writing their history, which is due to be published by the University of California press late in 1983. As the three historians note in their Preface (see next page), "we have the opportunities and disadvantages of endless material, no predecessors, and a distance in time from the object of our study insufficient (according to the rules of our trade) for historical perspective. We mention these points not to excuse errors, but to enlist help in a common cause . . . We welcome suggestions about [the] scope and approach."
| The Berkeley evening fog rolled away and the stars came out just long enough for Lab photographer Doug McWilliams to take the color photograph of the 184-inch cyclotron, the Laboratory, and the view beyond that is featured on the cover of this issue of the NEWSMAGAZINE. Doug hauled his cameras up the hill to a point midway between the cyclotron and the Lawrence Hall of Science to find this spectacular vantage point. |  |
We at the NEWSMAGAZINE wish to thank our academic colleagues for their collaboration on this Fiftieth Anniversary issue and wish them well in the task -J.G.
EDITOR, LBL NEWS MAGAZINE
Judith Goldhaber
Art Director
Ralph Dennis
THE LBL NEWSMAGAZINE IS published four times a year (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter) by the Public Information Office, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California
Head, Public Information Department
John Feack
Correspondence should be directed to LBL NEWSMAGAZINE, Building 931, Room 400, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif. 94720. Telephone (415) 486-5771
ISSN 0146-2725
All photographs by Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory except as noted.
Preface
 |
The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory consists of ten divisions devoted to the study of as many sciences. The staff, which now numbers 3000, and their machines, from typewriter to Bevatron, have produced not only discoveries enlightening in science, ingenious in contrivance, and useful in practice, but also a vast quantity of records. On paper and on film, on perforated cards and magnetic tape, in archives, office files, personal papers, agency reports, and government storage centers, these records occupy about fifty thousand cubic feet.
All the manuscripts left by Galileo and his disciples pertaining to the institutions of Tuscan science in the 17th century comprise a few hundred volumes. This paltry literature, which in size does not exceed the run of log books for the Bevatron, has nourished the studies and disputes of historians for over two centuries. In contrast, we have the opportunities and disadvantages of endless material, no predecessors, and a distance in time from the object of our study insufficient (according to the rules of our trade) for historical perspective. We mention these points not to excuse errors, but to enlist help in a common cause. Like those whose labors and achievements we record, we seek a small signal against a vast background of noise.
 | 184-Inch Cyclotron Wilson Tract. |
The historical record of the last twenty years of the Laboratory is especially profuse and diverse. New opportunities arising from shifts in perceived national needs and a leveling off of support for high-energy physics then brought a multiplication and diversification of research programs. For thematic unity we concentrate here on the first stage of the Laboratory's development. We plan to bring coverage further forward in the much larger and more comprehensive history that we are preparing.
The present account runs on two levels. One is a general narrative of the main events and forces in the several periods into which we have divided the Laboratory's first thirty years. The other is an episode or two from each period that we take to typify it. In choosing these episodes we considered the leading part played by accelerators throughout most of the Laboratory's history. We shall have opportunity for broader coverage in the full history, and welcome suggestions about its scope and approach.
It is a pleasure to thank Judith Goldhaber and Ralph Dennis, both of the LBL Newsmagazine, for suggestions for illustrations and for the handsome book design; Jacqueline Craig of the Office for History of Science and Technology for formatting and producing the text; Edward J. Lofgren, chairman of the Laboratory's Fiftieth Anniversary Committee, for his generous support; Vicki Davis, LBL archivist, for her hospitality and cooperation; and many members of the Laboratory staff for documents, hints, comments, and criticisms.
J. L. Heilbron
Robert W. Seidel
Bruce R. Wheaton