This paper describes a high voltage pulse generator developed to deflect the beam of the 184-inch cyclotron at Berkeley, California. The apparatus develops a deflecting potential of 200 kilovolts that rises from 10% to 90% of peak value in 0.1 microseconds. The unit employs two similar 100 kilovolt water cooled pulse transformers connected symmetrically about ground to the electric deflector bars. Water-cooled General Electric pulse capacitors are discharged through the two turn primary windings of the pulse transformers by triggering a battery of 16 paralleled Kuthe 5022 hydrogen thyratrons. Output voltages are developed across the 17 turn secondary winding of the pulse transformer. The transformer is mounted in an oil filled lucite case that provides both insulation and compact design.

The availability of separated isotopes of Mg makes it easy to determine the half life of Al{sup 26}, a member of the Wigner series which has long been suspected to have a half life of approximately 7 seconds, but which has not been confirmed because of the masking 7 second activity of Al{sup 26}. Mg{sup 24}, Mg{sup 25} and Mg{sup 26} (in the form of MgO) have been bombarded with protons from the Berkeley Linear Accelerator, with the following results: (1) Mg{sup 24} yields an activity of approximately 23 seconds half life, presumably due to Na{sup 21} from the reaction Mg{sup 24}(p,a)Na{sup 21}; (2) the Mg{sup 25} yields an activity of approximately 8 seconds half life, which they assign to the reaction Mg{sup 25}(p,n)Al{sup 25}; and (3) The Mg{sup 26} yields an activity of approximately 6 seconds half life, assigned to Al{sup 26} according to a similar reaction. It seems probable therefore that the 7 seconds half life normally given for Al{sup 26} is a mixture of these two activities.