In this post we begin recollections of Dick Cranes’s work with electrons and positrons   The material here is in augmentation of, or as commentary on the biographical memoirs of  Crane already in the literature.  In particular, we’ll be able to present many more photographs than are in that literature.

Crane’s work on the racetrack electron synchrotron began just after WWII when he urged David Dennison and Ted Berlin to confirm theoretically that electrons could be confined in stable orbits that included some straight line sections.   A display model shows the overall concept

But a view of the accelerator under construction shows the realities:

The Michigan electron synchrotron under construction, ~1950.

. Ten years later, Crane’s focus was completely on measurement of the free electron’s gyromagnetic ratio: