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Mercury Vapor - no arcs please

Frihed89, hi. Arcing is to be avoided. What you want is a nice ionization zone and no metalic Hg on the anode or cathode which indeed will cause arcing. Every fluorescent lamp contains mercury vapor. In metalic form it is not easily absorbed by living tissue. It is Methyl Mercury as produced by the burning of coal that is readily absorbed. If the partial vacuum is breached the Hg remains in metalic form. Same for Hg rectifier tubes. These tubes must be operated with the base down. If the tube has been moved around, shipped, whatever - it must be operated filament only for a period of time to re-establish condensation and vaporization zones. Advantage is low impedance - lower Z during operation than with vacuum rectifiers. This low Z operation is key to sonics. Problems are endemic with Hg. Tubes age and become unstable. Arc Back ( inverse voltage ) is the bain of these types where large currents are coupled with high voltage. The Hg rectifiers can also produce high frequency hash associated with the mechanisms of operation that is sonicly obnoxious. Small chokes can suppress it. Xenon gas can be used instead of Mercury vapor but the results may not be the best for audio ( 3B28 instead of 866 ). Happy Listening!


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