Timeline of particle physics technology

Timeline of particle physics technology

• 1896 - Charles Wilson discovers that energetic particles produce droplet tracks in supersaturated gases.
• 1897-1901 - Discovery of the Townsend discharge by John Sealy Townsend.
• 1908 - Hans Geiger and Ernest Rutherford use the Townsend discharge principle to detect alpha particles.
• 1911 - Charles Wilson finishes a sophisticated cloud chamber. ^[1]
• 1928 - Hans Geiger and Walther Muller invent the Geiger Muller tube, which is based upon the gas ionisation principle used by Geiger in 1908, but is a practical device that can also detect beta and gamma radiation. This is implicitly also the invention of the Geiger Muller counter.
• 1934 - Ernest Lawrence and Stan Livingston invent the cyclotron.
• 1945 - Edwin McMillan devises a synchrotron. ^[2]
• 1952 - Donald Glaser develops the bubble chamber. ^[3]
• 1968 - Georges Charpak and Roger Bouclier build the first multiwire proportional mode particle detection chamber. ^[4]

References

1. Mitton, Simon (2011-02-24). Fred Hoyle: A Life in Science. Cambridge University Press. p. 45. ISBN   978-1-139-49595-0 . Retrieved 2026-02-10.
2. "The synchrotron a proposed high energy accelerator. Pre-publication typescript". viaLibri. 2025-06-12. Retrieved 2026-02-10.
3. "Nobel Prize in Physics 1960". NobelPrize.org. 1926-09-21. Retrieved 2026-02-10.
4. "Georges Charpak". CERN Courier. 2010-11-30. Retrieved 2026-02-10.