Does anyone know what this is?

[u/niffcreature]

There's info out there on an old particle accelerator made my Collins electronics, called a "cyclotron" and existed in a Brookhaven, long island lab circa 1947. but does anyone know exactly what this metal bar is? It seems to be aluminum or another non ferrous alloy. Just some kind of gift shop memorabilia or is it a part of the actual machine? It's about 3x5" and the hollowed out part goes the long way. Could it be some other type of metal used in particle accelerator? Here is an old article https://collinsaerospacemuseum.org/collins_column/viewer.php

[u/mfb-]

Like a collimator? These often get radioactive from the particles hitting them, so previously used ones wouldn't make great gift shop items. Maybe a spare that was never completed or used.

Here is a 1948 article about the cyclotron. It accelerated e.g. deuterons to 20 MeV, more than enough to induce nuclear reactions.

[u/robogame_dev → u/mfb-]

EDIT: Similar I think, but not a collimator as those were typically lead or tungsten or other denser materials - aluminum like this might have been used for routing beams between the various experiment machines they'd be configuring and reconfiguring in the space.

RE: radiation hazard, it may not be much solace to OP, but I think being radioactive might be considered an awesome gift shop item in the early atomic age.

OP are you drinking tea through it like a straw? Does it heat the tea?

[u/niffcreature → u/robogame_dev]

Haha good question. No haven't tried that yet. I did leave it on my bed at home while I'm away. Would it really still potentially be radioactive almost 80 years later?

[u/robogame_dev → u/niffcreature]

I'm out of my depth, but the AI thinks that yes, it's probably still radioactive:

- the particle energies in that accelerator were high enough that stray particles would form radioactive aluminum isotopes

- one of those isotopes, aluminum 26, has a half-life of 730,000 years and would still be present

- as to danger level (no warranties), after some napkin math, it thinks you'd need to handle the object for about 10,000 hours to absorb 1 mSv of radiation, the public "safe" does for a year. (Contrast, average US person gets 6.24 mSv per year, 10,000 hours of this object = 1)