Experimental Study of Arc Stability. II. An Investigation of Mercury Arc Stability

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Abstract
The duration of an arc struck on a mercury pool has been studied under a variety of arc currents and vapor pressures. It is shown that at temperatures greater than −38°C the distribution of arc lifetimes follows an exponential decay law over the entire current range studied, whereas a distinct departure from this distribution occurs between −57° and −195°C. Over the current range 0.02–2.0 amp the mean arc lifetime varies from a few microseconds to 0.1 sec on a mercury cathode at 23.5°C. This study extends previous work and establishes that there is a sudden change in arc stability at the melting point. The data demonstrate, contrary to experience with liquid mercury, that an arc can be struck for very low currents in the case of solid mercury and, once struck, will burn for a finite length of time given by τ=τ0+KI, where τ0 is a residual lifetime for almost zero current. It is shown, however, that as the current is reduced, the probability of drawing an arc becomes diminishingly small.

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