I briefly worked on an experiment at Fermilab (FNAL) that was trying to measure the birefringence of the vacuum (QED theory states the vacuum is birefringent in presence of magnetic field). Key to the experiment were the final 2 remaining magnets from the SSC (Super Conducting Super Collider). There was much donated equipment, some of it repurposed from experiments at SLAC and elsewhere within FNAL. Gotta say those folks at FNAL really knew how to stretch a dollar.