Re: Magnetic quenching.

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

Original poster: Bert Hickman <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-net> 

Hi Gary,

Before vacuum tube or solid state high voltage rectifiers were available, 
synchronous mechanical rectifiers were used to synchronously switch (like a 
mechanical H-bridge!) the output from a HV transformer to create HV DC for 
X-ray machines and electrostatic precipitators. They tended to be large, 
loud, and needless to say, sparked a lot, and made tons or RFI...  :^)

Here are a couple of examples:
http://home.freeuk-dot-net/dunckx/wireless/bridge/bridge.html
http://www.iavalley.cc.ia.us/~thatcher/snookdia.jpg

Best regards,

-- Bert --

Tesla list wrote:
>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
>
>.