Abstract
THE present volume completes a survey of discharge phenomena in dielectrics. The previous volumes discussed the phenomena which occur in gases and liquids. The experimental evidence is presented first and is followed by a study of the theoretical work that has been published. The author says that when an electric stress is applied to solid insulation, only a small heating current passes initially. As the applied stress increases, the current also increases. At a certain critical value the current becomes unstable. The material can now no longer be regarded as a non-conductor. This sudden fall of resistance is usually taken as the criterion of breakdown. The most noticeable feature in a breakdown is usually the perforation caused in the dielectric, the material being decomposed, fused or volatilised, or the whole three effects may occur together. None of the theories given is very convincing but the author gives a clear presentation of all of them. The work will be helpful to research workers on this subject who are doubtless on the look-out for a theory that fits the experimental data. At the present time the problem appears to be a very difficult one.
Dielectric Phenomena. 3: Breakdown of Solid Dielectrics.
S.
Whitehead
By. Edited, with a Preface, by E. B. Wedmore. (Published for the British Electrical and Allied Industries Research Association, being Reference L/T. 42.) Pp. 346. (London: Ernest Benn, Ltd., 1932.) 30s. net.
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Dielectric Phenomena 3: Breakdown of Solid Dielectrics . Nature 131, 384 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131384d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131384d0