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The Original Helium Head
May. 9th, 2007 08:14 pmThe new Symmetry has an article on creative hacks in pursuit of particle physics. My favorite master of klugemanship, Todd Johnson, gets a fleeting mention. The whole thing plays like those "Tales from the Tech Shop" panels that are so popular at SF conventions. A sample:
Another giant figure in physics, founding Fermilab director Robert Wilson, is the hero of a widely circulated tale.
Ernie Malamud, a physicist at Fermilab, remembers working with Wilson during his graduate studies at Cornell. The pair wanted to use helium gas, often used to fill balloons, to locate a leak in the glass vacuum chamber; but they discovered the hose from the helium supply wouldn't reach the area where they perceived the leak to be. Wilson filled his mouth with helium from the hose, ran to the tank and blew on a gasket to find the leak. He turned to Malamud and grinned.
Another giant figure in physics, founding Fermilab director Robert Wilson, is the hero of a widely circulated tale.
Ernie Malamud, a physicist at Fermilab, remembers working with Wilson during his graduate studies at Cornell. The pair wanted to use helium gas, often used to fill balloons, to locate a leak in the glass vacuum chamber; but they discovered the hose from the helium supply wouldn't reach the area where they perceived the leak to be. Wilson filled his mouth with helium from the hose, ran to the tank and blew on a gasket to find the leak. He turned to Malamud and grinned.
