Lightning-arrester performance: Basis of comparison, recommended by lightning arrester sub-committee of the protective devices committee

In studying the performance of lightning arresters it is convenient to start with the hypothetical curve of the potential wave traveling along a circuit wire, as the result of a lightning discharge or other abnormal disturbance. Up to the present time it has not been found possible to determine the actual form of the potential curve of such a traveling wave, but it is felt that a representative analysis may be made by considering the general wave forms shown in Fig. 1, in which for simplicity the normal line voltage is omitted.