Sustained Radio Frequency High Voltage Discharges

1. Sustained radio frequency corona brushes or flames once started are maintained at much lower voltages than those required to start them by overstressing and ionizing the atmosphere. They quickly destroy even the most refractory insulations by their heating and ionizing properties. 2. The power factor of the charging current of a conductor in corona due to the application of sustained radio frequency high voltage is decidedly lower than the corresponding power lactor at audio frequencies. Nevertheless, because of the high values of the currents that produce the radio frequency coronas, the losses they cause may be hundreds of times the corresponding audio frequency losses. 3. The sustained radio frequency voltage required to discharge between corona-forming electrodes may be as low as one-third of the corresponding audio frequency voltage. At higher voltages this ratio will probably be found to be less than one-third. 4. Sustained radio frequency and audio frequency voltages when combined, discharge thru distances between corona-forming electrodes that are substantially the sum of the distances thru which such voltages would discharge when acting alone, due account being taken of their mutual aid in starting the corona at one or both of the electrodes, as the case may be.