First Spell at CERN

I had been working on the same type of accelerator at Harwell that Cern were planning to build. So in some respects I had a head start. I developed a "lock in oscillator" so that I could couple easily into the field patterns of the cavity modes. This way one could measure the electric fields of almost any mode in the cavity. I had to measure the Q factor and check that there were no appreciable losses. I developed my own methods and even gave a talk at the IEE in London which was well supported by ny Harwell colleagues. Alas when Nils Bohr came to inaugerate the PS I was ill, so I missed the fun!

I was at the controls of the linac when the PS made its first acceleration. Mervyn Hine was at the helm of the PS. He was the most patient of all men, excusing us for not doing exactly what was wanted and repeatedly encouraging us. Franco Bonaudi was his runner. I hit my head in the tunnel once on a trip to the PS control room from the linac, out for a short while but recovered soon after!

Lots was going on at Cern. Caesar was being put together, people were all loking round for ways to stay on after the PS and the SC machines were built. My friend Anthony Dopping-Heptonstall was at the SC. He had come from Mullard as had Bramham and Montague. Alas he deplored the waste of money at cern and tried to correct it. As a result his contract was not renewed. So when the chance came to elect to move on, I followed his path and left to go to Manchester to work on a heavy ion linac. A friend of Hereward, George Nasibian welcomed me with open arms.

Cern was a wonderful place, alas there was much of the old boy routine and one person that I knew and was friendly with had been a machinist in Manchester but rose to be one of the top grades at Cern. His only claim to fame was his activity as a trade union man in England! There were many such examples, similar to what went on at the UN. For this I was glad to go back to England and work for my living! Some people were brilliant, but I had to wait another few years until I could find them at CERN. It was the beginning of things for high energy accelerators, the really right people were yet to appear on the scene.

We had a lovely flat in Satigny, the second floor of a house on the La Boverie estate. The owner and his wife were quite sharp. I was promised a garage and when it didn't materialise I stopped paying rent! That worked like a charm, I was given a garage immediately.I had a oartsh of grass which I had to scythe by hand, also a patch of garden to cultivate for veg. The first chap downstairs was very odd. We taught them how to play bridge. Eventually he decided that the country was not for him and went back to town. We were then lucky to have the Preiswerks as our neighbours. He was quite senior at Cern, his wife Trudi was a dear. When we left they persuaded us to stay using their furniture as ours was on its way to Manchester! Before we finally left Kate was born and we had John and Rene Adams to our Christening party. The cave at Satigny had a tolerably good vin mousseux and we used it well for the party