Word: cyclotron
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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These and other new insights into historic works were all gained with the help of an aging machine located in a bunker-like structure on the campus of the University of California at Davis. It is a refurbished cyclotron, an early model particle accelerator that is able to crank a circulating beam of protons up to velocities as high as one-third the speed of light. By focusing the penetrating but low-intensity beam on the documents and then analyzing the spray of the X rays emitted when the protons collide with atoms in the target, Historian Richard Schwab...
Just as remarkable, says Schwab, is that the cyclotron analysis "gets us right back into Gutenberg's original printshop, for which there are no records whatsoever. We've pretty well cracked the code of the day-to-day or page-by- page organization of the Bible." From the various physical and chemical characteristics of the printed page, Schwab has concluded that Gutenberg used six production crews and at least two presses to complete the Bible. He can even identify by page the times when different tasks were shifted around to keep the production crews busy...
...Europeans had visited the continent before the time of Columbus. In 1974, however, some particles of ink from the map were found to be titanium-based. This meant, experts said, that the ink was of 20th century vintage and the map a fraud. But the Davis team, using their cyclotron technique, proved the ink was carbon based, with titanium present only in trace amounts. Says Cahill: "We feel that the question of the map's authenticity is once again open...
...another cyclotron investigation, Physicist Bruce Kusko, a member of the Davis team, examined the three-volume Calov Bible that once belonged to Bach. By comparing the composition of the ink used in underlinings and quotation marks that appear throughout the Bible with that of Bach's signature on the title page, he confirmed that the composer, and not one of the subsequent owners, had made the markings. Kusko believes that his finding is important because the markings provide clues about which passages influenced the composer...
...word spreads about the revelations of cyclotron analysis, the Davis team expects a mounting tide of requests from around the world. Cahill is not concerned. Says he modestly: "When someone needs a nondestructive analysis of a small amount of material, we can help...