The story of Jessica the Magnet

Q2P1, also known as Jessica, a full scale prototype of the Fermilab magnets for the LHC interaction region, has been built and tested at the Technical Division Magnet Test Facility. The tests were a complete success. The magnet met or exceeded the expectations for quench performance, magnetic field quality and quench protection.

How Jessica got her name

Coils in a superconducting magnet are held in place by "collars". This operation is performed with a "collaring press" housed in a hole, or well, to attach the collars. For Jessica, magnet technicians used a new press, and "collaring" the magnet took many tries. Eventually, technicians began to wonder if they would ever get the magnet successfully collared - and out of the well. That was the moment when they named the new magnet for Jessica McClure, the Midland Texas child whose 1987 rescue from a well transfixed the nation.

More about the technical side of Jessica