The Liquids and Amorphous Diffractometer, LAD, was the main diffractometer
for studying the structure of disordered materials at the ISIS pulsed neutr
on source, until its removal at the end of 1998. LAD was first installed at
the Harwell Linac neutron source in 1982, making it the first ISIS diffrac
tometer,and was subsequently moved to ISIS prior to the first production of
neutrons at the end of 1984. During its lifetime LAD performed many experi
ments on a wide range of different structural problems, leading to about 28
0 scientific papers. The seventeen-year history of LAD is discussed, giving
particular emphasis to the development of pulsed neutron diffraction, from
its early days as a relatively new and untested technique, to its current
status as a well-established major international project.