An Atom Smasher Is Squeezed Through a Museum’s Doors

If physics has to do with the actions and reactions of something, then this is about physics. But really it is about a thing — a thing that was at the heart of breakthrough physics experiments that led to the crash program for the atom bomb in World War II.

It is also about whether the movers could squeeze the thing through a door.
It was a 16-feet-7-inch-long piece of the machine that scientists working on the Manhattan Project built to smash atoms. The door belonged to the New-York Historical Society on Central Park West.

The historical society borrowed the device, a cyclotron, from the Smithsonian Institution, which has had it since 1965. The society is preparing an exhibition, “WWII & NYC,” that is scheduled to open next month and offer a look at the city’s contributions to the war. The cyclotron has not been on public view since a display at the Smithsonian was taken down in 1977....