[rescue] Crimson update: Hmm

[Jochen Kunz]

On 2003.04.02 00:29 vance at neurotica.com wrote:

> You can't get anything 100% nonconductive, I don't think.  I'm pretty
> sure you can arc across a vacuum.
A arc means that you have a nonconductive medium that you get to the
point where the electric field is so high, that the medium gets
ionisised. Ions are capable of transporting electrons, so you get a
current => conduction through ions. The current heats the medium => you
see the arc.

If the medium is heated up enough and the current is big enough you get
plasma... That is the way e.g. Xenon lamps work.

Conduction through vacuum is different. There is no plasma or ions
between the contacts. The electrons are traveling free from contact to
contact driven by the electric field. You can make it easier for the
electrons to leave the cathode by heating it. => Electron tube.

BTW: I saw an application of 10 kW Xenon lamps that where water imerse
cooled. The lamps where mounted in a glass pipe and the cooling water
was pumped through the pipe, so that the lanp and its contacts where
surrounded with water. The application was a high power laser that
needed two of that lamps to work. Per module. The actual machine
consisted of several modules. =:-()
--


tsch|_,
       Jochen

Homepage: http://www.unixag-kl.fh-kl.de/~jkunz/