Between World War II and the 1960s, the federal government funded different particle accelerators at competing universities to build high-energy physics experiments. Most notable were the Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC), which sent particles in a straight line, the Brookhaven National Laboratory at SUNY Stoney Brook and the Cornell University synchrotron, which sent particles around in a circle to have the same magnets work on the particles many times. By the 1960s, the cost of building bigger atom smashers were too high to fund each individual campus, and the size of ring for the next circular accelerator would be too large to fit on an existing college campus. So, the federal government decided to start a new location to be run by physicists from several universities. They held a competition to pick a site, but politicians fought for it to be in Illinois.