[en] This story is about two cyclotrons. The first was the one I helped build when I was a graduate student at Columbia; the second, I built with John Marshall at the University of Chicago after World War II. This is also a story about a graduate student who happened to be in the right place at the right time. In that sense it is an example of the opportunity that every graduate student can look forward to as a result of doing research on the frontiers of science, where the possibilities are endless. My own story had that kind of excitement. 9 refs., 21 figs