Re: Magnetic quenching.

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

Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net> 

"But seriously:

Now that we know that the negative incremental resistance caracteristic
of
the arc channel is due to the fact, that the channel just gets fatter to
accomodate higher currents (which replaces "magic" with straightforward,
I
think) 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.

Cheers, Finn Hammer"

	A couple of points.

1. Magnets were used in "arc converters" but NOT to result in quenching;
the current flowed continuosly.

2. As far as I can remember, "magnetic blowout" circuit breakers work by
pushing the arc into an "arc shoot" which cools it down and causes it to
stop conduction.  As pointed out here, it's not obvious to me that there
is such a thing as "magnetic quenching" in TC applications.

Ed