The Excitation and Transport of Metal Vapour in Short Sparks in Air

Electrical discharges

“…T h e production of electrode vapour in arc and spark discharges, and the resulting erosion of the electrodes, have been studied considerably during recent years (Llewellyn Jones, 1949, 1949b, Froome 1948, Finkelburg 1948, Williams, Craggs and Hopwood 1949. A theory of the erosion mechanism given by Llewellyn Jones (1946,1950) is based on theoretical estimates of the areas of electrode hot-spots obtained by considering the lateral spread of the electrons and positive ions due to diffusion and their space charge.…”

“…The excitation of atoms in pulsed discharges at atmospheric pressure hzs been investigated by Craggs, William? and Hopwood (1948) and Williams, Craggs and Hopwood (1949) by measuring the relative intensities of certain spectral lines. The transport of metal vapour was also investigated in the same experiments.…”