A theoretical determination of breakdown voltage for sphere-gaps

✍ Scribed by J.M. Meek

• Book ID: 104132313
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1940
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 624 KB
• Volume: 230
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/s0016-0032(40)90735-9

✦ Synopsis

The potentials required for breakdown between spheres are calculated oll the basis of the streamer theory of spark discharge. This theory is founded oll atom-physical considerations, so that the calculations are not of the usual empirical nature. Agreement within about 3 per cent. of the values determined experimentally is obtained in the case of the symmetrical sphere-gap for spacings up to a sphere diameter. The effect of variation of air density is also considered and the calculations are again found to be in close agreement with experiment. The Toepler discontinuity is explained in terms of the new theory, which predicts a transition region between two types of mechanism in the range of spacings where the discontinuity is observed, and which further accounts for the known increase in scattering of the measured potentials in that region.