Evolution of superconducting detector magnets

The increase of energy in colliding particle beams as well as the advances in particle detector technology during the last three decades have led to an increasing demand on the development of matching magnetic fields used to analyse the momentum of charged particles. New ideas and advances in cooling, conductor design and coil manufacturing have made it possible to construct magnets with ever larger field volumes and higher transparency. Novel techniques have made it possible to satisfy extreme applications from tiny artic balloon-borne experiments to the huge LHC detectors. This paper describes the evolution of superconducting detector magnets, identifies the major technological steps achieved and shows how the technology developed to its present status.