= Cockcroft-Walton generator
{c}
{wiki=Cockcroft–Walton_generator}
A <voltage multiplier> made of <rectifiers> and <capacitors> that transfers <electric charge> from an alternating supply into a series stack of stored <electric potential differences>. The <rectifiers> allow charge transfer during selected portions of the cycle; the <capacitors> retain charge between transfers. The supply continually replaces charge removed by the load. Multiplication of voltage does not multiply <energy>: the input must supply the output <power> and losses.
In his 1951 lecture The Artificial Production of Fast Particles, <Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton> describes the fourfold multiplier's series storage capacitors and alternating transfer capacitor in Fig. 2, p. 190. This is a mechanism for producing a nearly steady accelerating potential from an alternating input.<The Artificial Production of Fast Particles by Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton>[The Artificial Production of Fast Particles, lecture delivered 11 December 1951, p. 190, Fig. 2: storage and transfer capacitors; indexed primary text inspected]{ref}
\Image[/cockcroft-walton-voltage-ladder-and-beam-readout.png]
{title=Voltage accumulation and particle acceleration are different steps}
{description=Original functional diagram. Three ideal storage stages illustrate a chosen multiplier model; charge transfer is shown as a functional block rather than a wiring diagram. The beam crosses one total potential drop. The lower chain summarizes the lithium experiment's target and scintillation readout, not the geometry or stage count of the 1932 apparatus.}
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