Re: Inert gas SG

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

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Bert Hickman" <bert.hickman-at-aquila-dot-com>
> 
> Alex,
> 
> This information is sometimes a bit hard to find, and various sources
> sometimes give somewhat conflicting numbers. From Sarjeant and Dollinger
> ("High Power Electronics), the breakdown voltage for some common
> dielectric gases are:
> 
> Gas:            kV/cm
> ====            =====
> Air             23.0
> Nitrogen        22.8
> CO2             24.0
> SF6             67.0
> Argon            3.4
> Helium           1.3
> Hydrogen        12.0
> 
> As you can see, the breakdown voltage for helium and argon is very low
> compared to most of the others. However, for best quenching, pure
> hydrogen gas is the best performer. Static "quenching" spark gaps used
> in early spark radio sometimes used pure copper electrodes sealed in a
> container that was initially saturated with ethyl alcohol vapors. As the
> gap was run, any oxygen was scavenged by the electrodes, and the alcohol
> vapors were disassociated to leave a hydrogen atmosphere that was ideal
> for rapid quenching.
> 
> Good luck, and let us know how your experiments work out.
> 
> -- Bert --

	In the heyday of spark, large commercial stations often used gaps
running in compressed air.

Ed