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Re: magnetic quenching & Body-discharges

A "few Tesla's" is a huge field!!!!!!!  Your proposed gap
sounds interesting but an awful awful lot of work to set up
and make work.  By the way, there are a lot of surplus neodymium
(spelling?) magnets on the market which might make an excellent
magnetic field source for a magnetically quenched gap.  Have some
here and sometime when there's time (if ever) intend to try that.
The use of a magnetic circuit will certainly help a lot.  By the
way, the big arc transmitters of tghe 1900's to 1920's used a hughe
huge electromagnet to achieve an effect similar to quenching, with
the coils connected in series with the arc.  I have read that the
biggest cyclotron at Cal Berkely used a surplus Federal Radio 
magnet which had been kicking around the campus for years.
As far as using oneself for the discharge electrode, don't know
of anyone who has done it but have plenty of photographs in early
magazines showing guys (and gals) with streamers coming off their
fingers.  Don't think all of those photos were fakes.  At least
a couple of articles mentioned that it was necessary to use metal
thimbles on the fingers to prevent burns, just as you suggest.  The
ends of those sparks get mighty warm!
Ed Phillips