Re: magnetic quinching

["Ed Phillips" <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: Tesla729-at-cs-dot-com
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I was wondering if anyone out there knew anything about magnetic
> quinching of a spark gap. I have read some brief references to this
> in some old (turn of the century) literature on Tesla coils. It seems
> like someone mentioned this just a few days ago on the list and it
> aroused my curiousity. It does seem like this is a relatively unex-
> plored territory in the modern Tesla community and maybe, with the
> NIB rare earth magnets that are available today, it would be worth
> looking into.
> 
> Pondering,
> David R.

	Magnetic "quenching" of CW ARC oscillators was mandatory at power
levels of a kilowatt or so.  Typical flux density was of the order of
5000 to 10000 gauss, certainly obtainable with NIB magnets and a
suitable magnetic structure.  (You would need to keep the magnets cool,
as they have a rather low [~ 130°C] Curie temperature.)  However, the
arc voltage was only of the order of 500 volts and the arc was
continuous, for whatever that's worth.  For the TC  gap the voltage drop
during conduction  is of the same order, so would expect that the
magnetic field would certainly do SOMETHING.  Easiest way to find out
would be to set up a simple straight gap between the poles of a big
magnetron magnet and see if it made any difference.  The magnetic field
should be transverse to the arc.  The recipe for arc oscillators was to
arrange the polarity of the field to cause the arc to be directed
upward.  Since the polarity reverses across the TC gap, this might not
mean anything.

	Give it a try and let us know the results!

Ed