Brief review of the development of electrostatic accelerators and continuing work at Strasbourg

After a historical review of the development of electrostatic accelerators, work being done at the Centre de Recherches Nucleaires, Strasbourg, France, is described. Particular interest is placed on the 35-MV Vivitron accelerator, which uses a mixture of old and new concepts. New in the vivitron is the method of terminal and column support, the configuration of potential-defining electrodes, and the choice of insulating materials in the voltage generator. At the present time the activities of the Vivitron group are concerned mainly with the construction of the accelerator and with the different technological aspects of this work. Attention has also been given to more fundamental problems such as those concerned with the particle beam