RE: Magnetic quenching.

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <gary.lau-at-hp-dot-com> 

I have not done a lot of reading of Tesla's material.  I have to wonder how 
he managed to build a HV DC power supply?  Wasn't this before HV vacuum 
tube rectifiers were available?

I can't imagine that the "blast" created by convection currents would be 
very effective.

Gary Lau
MA, USA


Original poster: "David Thomson" <dave-at-volantis-dot-org>

Hi Finn,

  > perhaps it is time to nail down what to expect from applying a
  > magnetic field across the arc.
  >
  > One would expect that it would merely bend into a curve, making it longer,
  > which hardly seems desirable.

If you have a copy of Tesla's "Inventions", go to page 305 and read the next
few pages on spark gaps (he calls them "interrupters").  Tesla says a
magnetic gap is good for both an AC and DC coil, but particularly good for a
DC coil.

His description of his "air-blast" gap is interesting.  Instead of using
compressed air, Tesla enclosed his gap in either an air tight box or tube.
The draft caused by the rising warm air provided the air blast.

Dave