Elementary Particles Laboratory
The original name of this building was "Cosmic Ray Research Laboratory." It was built during the WW-II period to house the cosmic ray research conducted by Prof. George T. Reynolds. While the Princeton-Penn accelerator was being constructed at the Forestall campus in the late 1950s, every member, including Val Fitch and Jim Cronin, was excited about moving into a shiny new place, but the new place did not last too long. This old building still stands firm, and its younger neighbor Jadwin Gymnasium (Photo 2004).
This "Cosmic Ray Lab" is quite meaningful to me because my Princeton physics career started from this building. The Princeton-Penn accelerator project included a rapid-cycling (20 cy/sec). I was involved in the design of its pressure-control mechanism. At that time, transistors were new to physicists, and Val Fitch gave a series of lectures of on this subject. I still remember the word "depletion layer."
This photo was taken in earlier (maybe 1970). Trees were shorter and cars were bigger.
The Physics Department used hold spring picnics at the front ground of this building. Eugene Wigner is seen in this photo of 1962.
