Enquête sur l’environnement socio-technique d’un générateur Cockcroft-Walton en vue de sa restauration et de sa conservation

Abstract

The Cockcroft-Walton high voltage generator, which provided energy for a particle accelerator, is today at the heart of a restoration and interpretation project. The multidisciplinary approach that was involved studied the feasibility of the project, including reflection on the meaning and impact of the place chosen to preserve this scientific and technological ensemble. The objective is to facilitate the relocation of the object between the various contexts of its uses. Our article gives an account of the steps of this historic and ethno-technological investigation around a vestige of ‘Big Science’, a realm now becoming heritage.

Keywords

• conservation-restoration
• contemporary technical and scientific heritage
• nuclear physics
• particle accelerator
• Cockcroft-Walton generator