Polarity Limits of the Sphere Gap

Abstract

It is found that 60-cycle polarity characteristics correlate with the positive and negative impulse calibration curves for grounded sphere gaps sufficently well to use them for determining the polarity limits for sphere gaps. The available data show that the maximum spacing at which a grounded sphere gap has equal positive and negative spark-over is a linear function of the size of the spheres. From this relation, it follows that the maximum sparking distance for equal positive and negative spark-over, expressed as a per cent of the diameter of the spheres, is not constant for all sphere diameters. Therefore, arbitrary polarity limits expressed in terms of the diameter of the sphere cannot apply to all sizes of sphere gaps.