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Unbalanced forces in a mercury arc?

     There was some dicussion on the Vortex-L listserv about experiments that were done concerning Anomalous Cathode Force in electric discharges. It was theorized by Frederick Sparber that a net force might develop on the entire anode/cathode structure in a mercury arc discharge, said force being proportional to the mass difference between the ionic carrier Hg+ and e-. This ratio is about 600, so the putative force should be easily measurable.

     Having a mercury ignitron on hand, I thought I would have a go at it and see if the effect would reveal itself. The photo below is of the actual test apparatus. All control devices and the oscilloscope are in the next room. The mercury sits in a puddle at the base of the ignitron, which is the cathode. Flexible conductors allow the igntiron to move freely in the vertical direction. An anomalous force with either add or subtract from the weight measured by the digital scale. The scale is accurate to a gram, and the total mass of the ignitron is about 1/2 of the total range of the scale. The red wire with clip is used to bypass the ignitron, in order to test if conductor flexure or residual magnetism causes any artifact force to manifest. The experiment involves allowing a measured pulse of current to pass through the ignitron, whilst the scale is visually observed for possible variation.

     The circuit itself is fairly straightforward. Two car batteries are used in series to provide 24 volts at upwards of 800 amps on pulse. The .08 ohm resistor provides a ballast to allow smooth and limited current flow in the mercury arc. A problem arises in that once the current begins to flow in the arc, only a reverse current or interruption will cause the arc to extinguish. Therefore an auto ignition relay was used in series with the ignitron. Control circuitry turns this relay on and about 1/10 of a second later fires the ignitron. The relay then opens, blocking current and finishing the run.

     The two voltage probes are used to measure the voltage drop across the entire circuit (ignitron and resistor) and the current sensing/ballast resistor, providing accurate voltage and current replica signals. The triggering circuits for the relay and the ignitron are floating, so circuit ground is the negative pole of the car batteries. All probe grounds come to this common point.

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