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Published on: VG

1940

United States. The first working betatron is built: unlike cyclotrons, it uses magnetic induction to accelerate electrons. Shortly thereafter, it accelerates electrons to 99.99% the speed of light. Then, in 1944, Herb Pollock leads a team at General Electric Research Labs in Schenectady, New York, to build a 130-ton, 100-MeV betatron.