The Effect of Gaseous Ambient on the Initiation of Breakdown in Soil

Measurements have been made of the dependence of the breakdown behavior of soils on the gaseous ambient. Except in completely dry soils essentially no dependence on the substitution of SF6 for air in the soil was seen. This observation is in contradiction to previous results and indicates that in some configurations the breakdown behavior is not controlled by the gaseous ambient. Suggestions are made as to possible reasons for the differences between the present results and those reported previously.