Month: August 2026

Tim Koeth’s three-decade cyclotron project Tim Koeth’s cyclotron project began in 1995, when he was a sophomore physics student at Rutgers University. During a modern physics lecture by Professor Tom Devlin, Tim learned how a cyclotron uses a magnetic field and radio-frequency electric fields to repeatedly accelerate charged particles. The combination immediately appealed to interests…

Tim Koeth’s cryptologic hobby sits at the intersection of historical cryptography, electromechanical engineering, restoration, radio, and hands-on experimental history. It is less about modern computer cryptography than about preserving and actually operating the physical machines that implemented secure communications during the 20th century. His interest goes back to childhood, when formerly secret cipher technology was…

The story begins in 2013, when Tim unexpectedly received a roughly two-inch, five-pound cube of natural uranium metal. It came with the tantalizing handwritten note: “Taken from the reactor that Hitler tried to build. Gift of Ninninger.” Tim immediately recognized what it appeared to be: one of the uranium fuel cubes manufactured for Nazi Germany’s…

Tim’s Account of the Piscataway Radium Incident Background My fascination with radioactivity started very early. By the age of 10, I knew I needed a Geiger counter. I searched high and low for one, calling my science teachers and their friends, but to no avail. I did already have an insensitive, high-range CDV-715 ionization chamber,…