Blewett describes the building of Brookhaven National Laboratory's Cosmotron in the 1950s and the theoretical work surrounding it, done by Ernest Courant, Kenneth Green, Nelson Blachman and Blewett himself, in some detail, including problems and building materials used. He also describes the planning and building of the accelerators at the University of Birmingham, England, and the University of California Radiation Laboratory (now Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory) in the 1940s and 1950s; the operation of the Cosmotron until it was shut down in 1968; and the invention of "strong focusing" (or alternating-gradient focusing) in 1952 and its application to accelerators. Blewett further discusses his association and work with engineer Nick Christofilos in accelerator design at Brookhaven, and recounts the help given the CERN proton synchrotron group--which included Odd Dahl, Frank Goward and Rolf Widere̲--in developing their accelerator. He also describes the Brookhaven Electron Analog, Midwestern Universities Research Association and Argonne Zero Gradient Synchrotron projects, and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron project, concluding with a tribute to Ken Green and Leland Haworth.