10-metre magnet prototype achieves 8.73 Tesla

The first prototype bending-magnet for the LHC reaches a field of 8.73 Tesla, which is higher than the 8.4 Tesla field at which the LHC will operate in 2012.

Superconducting magnets must be "trained" so that they can maintain the superconducting state necessary to achieve such high fields. Any abnormal termination of the superconducting state, which switches the magnet back to its normal, resistive state, is called a "quench."

LHC Director Lyn Evans receives a hand-written note as he sits in a Finance Committee meeting. It reads:

Message de J.P Goubier et R.Perin à L Evans
on a attaint 8,73 tesla
100 quench

They mean "sans quench" - a pun on the French word "cent" or "one hundred", which is pronounced the same as the word for "without".