The electric strength and conduction of methane gas at high pressures

There are several reasons for studying the electrical behavior of gases at high pressure. Since the strength increases as the pressure is raised there is obvious industrial interest, but there is also great interest in determining whether the Townsend mechanisms of breakdown and Paschen´s law are maintained as the gas density increases. The increased strength also leads to the possibility of field emission and other electrode effects. Further if the gas density is sufficiently high there is the possibility of linking these investigations to corresponding studies of the liquid phase as Young¹ and Sharbaugh and Watson² and others have shown.