Commissioning and First Measurements on the CTF3 Chicane

The transfer line between the linac and the first recombination ring (Delay Loop) of the CTF3 project has been installed at CERN in spring-summer 2004. In the transfer line a magnetic chicane is used to tune the length of the bunches coming from the linac in order to minimize the Coherent Synchrotron Radiation contribution to the beam energy spread in the recombination system. The first measurements of the beam parameters at several linac and stretcher settings are described. We report the compression curve as a function of the optical parameter R56representing the dependence of the longitudinal position of a particle on its energy, obtained by measuring the bunch length with a 3 GHz RF deflector.