Denys Wilkinson Building

At the top, the ions would pass through a thin foil to strip off electrons, and then their trajectory would be bent 180° by a large magnetic field.

This particular accelerator consisted of a pressure vessel, about 40 feet tall, containing an annular lift/elevator platform to enable work to be carried out at different levels inside.

Stacked in the centre was the accelerator column, comprising the Van de Graaff generator (a thick, rubber/canvas belt approximately 2 feet wide), the up/down vacuum tubes, and the electron stripper and magnet systems on top.

The gas served as an insulator, allowing higher voltages on the Van de Graaff generator to be run resulting in greater particle energies being attained than if air had been used.

The sulphur hexafluoride was sourced from a company in Italy, and occasionally shipments of "bombola di gas" addressed to the "Nuclear Physics Department" Oxford would get stuck on the Italian/French border.

To extract it holes had to be cut through the floor of the covered loading dock located at the north side of the building all the way down to the lowest basement.

The accelerators were intended to support research into nuclear structure, a field that was popular at the time of the building's construction.

[citation needed] There was occasionally tension with the local council, which periodically tried to shut down the "Nuclear Physics Department" of the university.

Generally, such tensions were resolved with arranged visits, and explanations as to the role it would also serve for the councillors in the event of a nuclear attack on the United Kingdom.