The last link in the longest linac

18 February 1998

On 10 February 1966, at a ceremony at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), the last bolt - a gold-plated one! - was inserted into the new two-mile long linear accelerator (or linac). This image shows L.A. Mohr from the US Atomic Energy Commission (who had funded the project) wielding a wrench on the bolt itself. The image has been discovered recently, along with others, in the SLAC archives. The famous linac, which accelerates electrons, has led to many major discoveries, including the first direct evidence for the existence of substructure - quarks - within protons and neutrons.

Credit: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

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