US2996645A - Modification of the action of, and the electron and ion paths in, a mercury arc discharge tube - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 15, 1961 ANG A. v 2,996,645 MODIFICATION OF THE ACTION OF, AND THE ELECTRON I ION PATHS IN, A MERCURY ARC DISCHARGE TUBE Filed July 2, 1958 AND CONTROL CONT- ROL '9 32 Alfred Vang BY FIG-.5 7/

ATTORNEY.

MODIFICATION OF THE ACTION OF, AND THE ELECTRON AND ION PATHS IN, A MERCURY AZRC DISCHARGE TUBE Alfred Vang, Box 864, Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., assiguor of one-third to himself, as trustee, and one-third to Anna Vang Filed July 2, 1958, Ser. No. 746,151

. 2 Claims. (Cl. 315267) This invention relates to the modification of the action of, "and the electron and ion paths in, a mercury are discharge tube.

More particularly, the invention relates to, and has for its general object, the production of bursts or magna quanta of energy as described in my British Patent No. 785,448.

In many uses of high voltages and large current of .short duration resort is made to condenser discharge. .While condenser discharge is quite satisfactory when accomplished'by a magnetic field in the tube.

A further object is to supply large amounts of energy to atomically'fusionable material so as to initiate fusion.

In the accompanying drawingshowing, by way of exare increased or diminished. This variation of path is I ample twoof many possible embodiments of theinven- I tion,

FIGURE 1 shows a circuit for producing magn-a quanta.

FIGURE 2 is a schematic representation of a use of the circuit for initiating nuclear fusion.

FIGURE 3 shows tubes in opposition for producing substantially square wave current.

FIGURE 4 shows the wave pattern of square-wave current.

FIGURE 5 shows the Wave form of the output of the circuit of FIGURE 1, and

FIGURE 6 shows a modified form of a tube for use in the circuit of FIGURE 1.

The invention can be understood more easily by first considering certain of the elements in conventional combination, such as a source of power S, at 1,000 volts up, connected through a mercury arc tube T to a load such as a transformer 10, the connection being made through the primary winding 11. The tube comprises an inverted U shaped envelope 12 having legs 14 and 15 one of which 14 is preferably longer than the other, with mercury pools 16 and 18 in the respective lower extremities. In order to insure adequate ignition of the oathode 16 I employ a plurality of sealed small tubes 19 partially filled with mercury as at 20 and projecting upwardly into the cathode pool from the exterior. The

tubes 19 are of dielectric material such as ceramic so its windings is to set up flux lines in the leg 14 and parallel thereto, so as to induce a spiral motion to the electrons in the tube and thus increase the passage time of the electrons from cathode to anode. The magnetic field is ve strong, of the order of 5000 to 5,000,000 gauss.

Current to the windings 22 is supplied in square wave form. A known generator for square wave current is shown in FIGURE 3, where a main supply 24 of current is selectively connected to a delivery line 25 by momentary ignition of a switch tube 26. The switch tube 26 is extinguished abruptly by applying an inverse potential from a source 28 via a second tube 29. By proper timing of the ignition of the two tubes 26 and 28 a wave form such as shown in FIGURE 4 is produced wherein the pulses have a duration of t; at intervals of 1 In practice t is from 10 microseconds to '10 milliseconds. The time interval between bursts varies with the nature of the load and of course with the frequency at which the main tube T is ignited. The sudden cut off of current at the endof each pulse of current removes the influence to cause the electrons to spiral within the tube.

Motion of the electron toward the anode -.is then changed to a direct direction by the energizing of a plurality of magnetic coils 30 axially radial of the legs r14, their energization occurring substantially immediately after the collapse of the flux due to coils 22 so that spiral motion energy of the electrons is transformed into direct or axial motion to anode in a beam. Since this change of motion is an acceleration that results from what is tantamount to shortening of the tubea new dimension is added and I choose to call the stream of electrons that result, a fourth dimensional microbeamf,

It is to be understood that several. of the coils 30 may be evenly spaced about the leg 14 and radial thereto so as to give the ele'ctronfibeam a somewhat circular cross section. However even only. one coil 30 will tend to "pan the electrons out of their spiral or random lateral motion.

More than one set of radial coils 30 may be disposed about the envelope along the axial length thereof just as more than one set of coaxial coils are shown.

When the tube T has been conductive in the manner desired and for the desired duration it is extinguished by a blow out potential from a source 32 applied, through a switch 31, inversely to the tube T. The blow out is governed by a control 34 interconnected with the control 21 for the ignition and the two magnetization currents. In practice, both controls have a feed back monitoring line 35 connected to some part of the final load such as the secondary 36 of the transformer 10.

It is to be understood that the timing of the igniters, flux coils 22 and 30 and blow-out are variable with the load.

In one manner of operation, the cathode is ignited and the current builds up through the tube relatively slowly while the coils 22 are energized, then the coils 22 are deenergized allowing the electrons to move more directly to the anode, thus releasing energy stored in the tube. At a predetermined time the arc is blown out and the output is suddenly cut off as shown in FIGURE 5.

In another manner of operation the coils 22 are placed near the cathode so as to suppress or reduce ionization of the mercury when their flux is present, though other ionizing conditions would be attained. Collapse of the (flux would let loose a burst of electrons.

In yet another mode of operation alternate energizing of the coils 22 and 30 will produce condensations and rarefactions of the electrons so as to produce a sound wave of electrons superimposed on the electron stream flowing from cathode to anode. This is especially good when several sets of each type of coil are provided along the length of the tube T.

These actions are possible due to the fact that heavy currents are not applied to the coils for a long period of time. Otherwise, the coils could not physically stand the strain.

The supply of vast quantities of fast moving electrons for short periods of time coupled with the use of a blow out means that the rate of change in flux of the load is tremendous. This is true even when the inductance of the load is low for any load has some inductance.

An example of a load requiring a large amount of energy momentarily is the initiation of nuclear fusion, such as the reaction between deuterium and tritium and the attendant reactions between the two atoms of deuterium. To effect fusion I contemplate the use of a toroidal tube 136 containing deuterium and tritium at low pressure which serves as the secondary of an iron core transformer 100.

While I have shown the switch tube T in U form a somewhat similar tube 200 is shown in FIGURE 6 as a straight vertical tube provided with an expansion chamber 201 and an upper anode 202 of inverted dish shape, against a similar shaped end 204. Condensing mercury tends to roll in droplets to the inner wall 205 of the tube and thence to the periphery of the mercury pool 16. The inner zone 216 of the pool is separated from the peripheral zone by a vertical glass cylinder except at ports 208 below the surface of the pool and the inner zone is provided with at least one igniter 19.

The construction of the tube 200 permits a trapping of impurities and ions in the cooler parts of the tube. A coolant such as water at 209 may be used to cool the anode region of the tube. The anode 202 may be of platinum or partly platinum sponge to soak up mercury and give it the characteristics of a mercury electrode. The tube 200 is shown as having comparatively little height relative to its diameter but it is to be understood that the height may be very much greater to accommodate a plurality of sets of coils such as 22 and 30, and the expansion chamber 201 may be very large so as to prevent excess build up of hot vapor in the tubular portion when the vapor therein is suddenly subjected to extremely high temperature momentarily.

Many changes in the suggested constructions and modes of operation will be apparent to those skilled in the art and such changes may be made which will not necessarily be beyond the scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:

1. In combination, a source of current, a load connected thereto for energization thereby and a mercuryarc tube switch interposed therebetween; said switch comprising an elongate envelope having an anode and a cathode in the end portions thereof, the envelope enclosing space providing an electron path from cathode to anode, a plurality of inductive coils about the envelope substantially coaxial with said path, and another plurality of inductive coils about the envelope, axially substantially at right angles to said path at an intermediate portion thereof, and means for supplying square wave current in a predetermined timed relationship to the respective pluralities of coils.

.2. The combination as claimed in claim 1, further including means connected across the tube switch for impressing an inverse potential across the tube switch for extinguishing same.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,179,601 Smith Nov. 14, 1939 2,180,815 Meier Nov. 21, 1939 2,191,595 Spencer Feb. 27, 1940 2,217,186 Smith Oct. 8, 1940 2,271,666 Smith Feb. 3, 1942 2,714,577 Fermi et a1. Aug. 2, 1955 2,868,991 Josephson et al. Ian. 13, 1959 2,870,076 Koch Jan. 20, 1959 OTHER REFERENCES Nucleonics, February 1958, pp. -93, 151-155.

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