THE ELECTRIC SPARK was first treated quantitatively by J. S. Townsend in 1903.1Since that time, the interpretation of the physical processes that lead to breakdown has been modified radically.2–7It is the purpose of this report to trace the development of the present concepts of the physical processes which lead to the d-c electric spark, and to discuss to what extent these processes are understood.
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L. H. Fisher (1950) studied this question.