Experiments with exploding wires made of constantan, copper, and lithium in atmospheric air have shown that the dwell time of an exploding wire for the examined lengths (3.2, 6.5, 9.7, and 13 cm), diameters (0.005 cm for constantan and copper, and 0.025 cm for lithium), and applied voltages (1 to 20 kV) is a function of the average electric‐field strength along the wire. The function relating dwell time to field strength is not single‐valued, but from a certain critical value there are two dwell times corresponding to each field strength. There is evidence that this duality of the dwell times is due to a change in the type of explosion at the critical gradient. Both types of observed dwell times depend in a simple way on the average field strength.