Beam Jockeys of the Sixties

[beamjockey]

Recently I found a 1966 account of a brand-new atom smasher. Dr. Gregory A Loew gave a talk to fellow physicists at the International Conference on Instrumentation for High Energy Physics proudly describing his laboratory, which is one of Fermilab's elder sisters.

Take a look at "Report on the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center."

At the bottom of page 5, Loew writes:

"Just to the right-hand side of the console is the domain of the beam operator, sometimes called the beam jockey. Besides numerous telephones and Tektronics (sic) oscilloscopes, the beam operator focuses his attention on beam guidance and the beam spectrum."

This greatly predates my own use of the phrase "beam jockey" in the mid-Eighties.

Comments

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

If you call yourselves beam jockeys, why aren't you wearing silks?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I'm the only one of my generation, far as I know, who calls himself a beam jockey. Futhermore, I have not actually had a job jockeying beams since 1993. By then, though, my Net identity was firmly established.

That said, I don't have a good answer about the silks.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Well, you need to create beam jockey silks for yourself, then. The white pants and black boots are a given; now all you need is to come up with the right design for a jacket.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

Look at his icon, and I think the jacket design becomes obivous.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

The icon is based on a jacket I used to wear, a thrift-store find from St. Vincent dePaul (known to hipsters as "Vinnie's Boutique"). It was white with pinkish-red stripes.

Doesn't fit my older, plumper figure these days. Wish I could find another.



Here's a picture from the time I loaned it to Chris Olsen, another beam jockey.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Assuming that you can find similar fabric, I would think that there would be any number of costumers who would be able to make another jacket for you.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

You're quite right. I hadn't considered that.