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Name of creator

Linac 1 Group & Linac 1 Group

Administrative or biographical history

Linear accelerator 1 (Linac1) was designed in the early 1950s to serve as an injector for the Proton Synchrotron (PS). It accelerated its first beam in 1958 and was fully commissioned in 1959 when one turn of 50 MeV protons went round the PS. Linac1 was the only supplier of protons to the CERN synchrotrons until Linac2 took over in 1978. Linac1 accelerated light ions – such as deuterons and alpha particles, as well as oxygen and sulphur ions – for 33 years until its retirement in 1992. Linac3 took over ion production in 1994.

Linac2 started up in 1978, when it replaced Linac1. It was originally built to allow higher intensity beams for the accelerators that follow it in CERN's accelerator complex. Linac2 was switched off for the last time on 12 November 2018. It was replaced by Linac 4.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Michael O’Neil from Hadron Sources and Linacs (HSL) Section, which is part of the Accelerators and Beam Physics Group (ABP) of the Beams Department (BE).