High-Speed Crash.

In atomic physics an accelerator is an atom smasher. It takes a subatomic particle, speeds it up, and smashes it into a group of atoms. The result is a new set of subatomic particles that have new properties to be studied. The faster the original particles move before smashing into atoms, the more subatomic particles result.

Boost.

Accelerators were first built in the early twentieth century with direct current. Electrons were used to smash atoms, but the process was very slow by 1950s standards. The original cyclotrons were developed in the 1930s. They moved particles in a circular path using magnetic fields before bombardment. Acceleration of the particles was accomplished with a series of electrical-field "boosts" or "kicks" in the pathway.

Synchrocyclotrons.

The 1940s saw the birth of synchrocyclotrons, which increased the speed of particles even more by synchronizing the kicks with...