The LHC will employ the use of 1,232 dipole magnets, which are cooled to superconducting temperatures by liquid helium at 2 Kelvin and will provide magnetic fields as strong as 8.33 Tesla.  As one might imagine, these puppies are valuable.  To string two of them together, without interrupting the circuits through which currents as high as 11,850 Amps will flow, requires a highly sophisticated splice mechanism which must have a resistance of less than 0.000080 Ω for the machine to work properly.

Otherwise, this happens.

Of course, since CERN decided to display these magnificent beasts prominently (including one proudly and boldly showcased on the otherwise beautiful green lawn outside CERN’s Restaurant 1), they had to find a way to protect their valuable end-connections.  These are the blag end-plugs you see in this photo of the lawn dipole.

Well, I suppose CERN had a spare endcap.  I would never have been creative enough to devise this plan for its fate.

Another magnet cover-gone-planter.

It really ties the room together.