“Soviet designers
Created the world’s most powerful
Synchrotron,
And
Orbit rushes
And knock down the target asks
Soviet electron…”,
– so enthusiastically in suburban trains bawled we are students in weekly hikes.
And that’s when the trio of students of the Leningrad Institute of aviation instrument engineering (liap) was asked to write a diploma at the Institute of Managereditor them. Of the Comintern on the subject of developing powerful generators for the most powerful accelerators, and, in the spirit of that time – to finish the liap six months ahead of schedule, we agreed with pleasure.
Institute I thought was very prestigious and was the embodiment of dreams about the future. Even mocking the strictness of the regime was regarded with religious reverence as ritual sacrifice.
The head of my graduation project was appointed (now forever powehouse) Seeds of E. London is exclusively the leading expert in broadband high frequency amplifiers – man, fanatically enthusiastic synthesis of broadband filters, clever, in many ways not of this world, always in-depth in itself.
I immediately plunged into his research to develop a broadband filter (approximation by Chebyshev) for one of the developed powerful high-frequency amplifiers. Everything was exciting and interesting, and (what can I say!) at the time, was not in vain “physics in honor” — the Only thing annoying was unthinkable large amount of calculations required for optimization. But while the basic calculator was considered a luxury. All for a slide rule to hurt the eyes.
The end of the term graduate design it turned out that I have over a hundred sheets of the material through the synthesis filter, but the diploma did not take place. Opinions were divided: Semyon Efimovich believed that thesis is almost completed, the leadership in Liap – that the volume of the material is close to zero. With each other they weren’t arguing, of course, I was in the crotch. However, the diploma had to crash, including a much-needed sections on the economy, fire safety, etc. I imbued with respect to the development and were proud of the resulting optimization is designed quadrupole, head found 60% of the material of the original, but the diploma of the Commission is not impressed, and she was very amazed at how most of the diploma devoted to the calculation of only one lousy filter. Justice once again prevailed: I was not understood and bits, diploma barely pulled a four.
However, due to the high average score of marks of the diploma I was accepted to the fifth division of VNIIRA not a Junior technician and with the boost: just as a laboratory assistant. Thus, to grow up the posts of Junior engineer, in my career with only one step – senior research assistant. As a result, the income I have identified only one and a half times lower than the one that I received to the Institute – fitter tinsmith on the Electric power.
In the “Comintern,” I worked 65 to 76 years, where, together with talented staff received dozens of copyright certificates of the USSR and seen a lot of extremely remarkable individuals. Of course, the most interesting were the leading experts, including (at first) – the heads of the laboratories. It’s brilliant experts-fans-crazy-donkeys. Each of them immensely at the time and the effort worked on his narrow task electropneumatically equipment (mostly for transmitters and particle accelerators) in the tubes or thyratrons (powerful semiconductor switches did not yet exist). And, as he thought, the overall results were world-class!
Still a little bit of investment gosudavstva and our 700 children of physicists at CERN, and in the native Dubna or Protvino not have flown past the God particle – the Higgs boson.
Where at that time undertook such a commitment, which we now probably can be found, perhaps only in the business? In my opinion, all these people were distinguished by a happy combination of ambition, health, and professional talent. Young me difficult to understand, because their externally observable part of the personality was extremely small as the tip of the iceberg.
