POINT WAY TO IMPROVE CIRCUIT BREAKERS

CD 2478087 E&MP15.006

Electric Circuits, Breakers

January 1943

Electric arcs oscillate and die out in gas bubbles
when circuit breaker contacts pull apart under oil.

Drs. Joseph Slepian (left) and Thomas E. Browne, Jr., made this discovery by taking moving pictures at the rate of 2,000 a second through glass windows which revealed the inner workings of the apparatus.

The pictures have shown engineers how to improve protective equipment which switches power lines on and off in a few hundredths of a second. 

Original Caption by Science Service
^©Westinghouse