ABSTRACT
Most of the participants in the megavoltage race before World War II resumed it afterwards. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) held a stronger position than the University of California (UC) in pioneering not only a new technology but also a university–industry amalgamation to manufacture the technology and a new way of financing it. General Electric's (GE's) medical X-ray development lagged during the war as the company devoted its research to military production. Medical centers purchasing GE devices also engaged in publicizing the devices along with their own services. The University of California appreciated that, having headed radiation safety for the Manhattan project, its radiology chief was "well placed" to channel federal funding to its medical school in San Francisco. The widespread photography and photogenicity of the synchrotron and other high-voltage devices, however, enhanced radiation therapy's appeal as the image of medical modernity.
