Panel on accelerators and detectors in the 1950s

The article takes the form of a panel of famous particle physics scientists discussing accelerator design and detectors used in the 1950s. The discussion ranges over accelerator energy capacities, the invention of alternating-gradient focusing, and colliding beam machines, beam stacking and the application of digital computers to accelerator calculations. The development of particle beams using strong-focusing lenses and electrostatic separators rounded off the decade. Detectors moved from bubble chambers, the use of plastic and inorganic scintillators, to hadron calorimeters, Cherenkov counters and finally spark chambers. Various discoveries made using sodium iodide scintillation counters are noted. (UK)