Swindletron. Drs. Luis W. Alvarez and John R. Woodyard of the University of California are building a new-type atom-smasher that they call a "swindletron" because it seems to get something for nothing. At one end of a 6-ft. vacuum tube, protons (hydrogen atoms stripped of their single electrons) are shot at comparatively low speed (30,000 volts) through a thin, uncharged disk of aluminum foil. While passing through it, many of them pick up two electrons, becoming negatively charged hydrogen atoms. Next, they are attracted to a second disk of foil that is charged...
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