Gaseous Conductors: Theory and Engineering Applications

Gaseous discharges have been studied for a very long time and may be said to have given birth to the atomic age. The field, how¬ ever, is far from a dead one, as the large and active attendance at the annual conference for Gaseous Electronics, sponsored by the Division of Electron Physics of the American Physical Society, attests. Many applications of gaseous discharges are now being found in the glamorous new studies in hypersonics, missiles, fusion, etc. Many studies continue to be made in refining the measurements of fundamental quantities by new electronic techniques.

A few years ago the author started a revision of the text. How¬ ever, this work was interrupted due to a change in the plans of the original publisher. Continued inquiries for the out-of-print text by both industrial and educational users indicated that the original edition was still useful. Since it will probably be a number of years before the author can undertake the task of rewriting the text, the reprinting of the original text was considered worthwhile. The author wishes his work were free of errors, but in common with most writers he has found that some crept in, fortunately none was serious. The publication of this reprint has provided an oppor¬ tunity to make such corrections as are feasible.