A new electrostatic precipitator

The cleaning action upon gases of a corona discharge has been known since 1824; however, the technique of electrostatic precipitation has been improved slowly because of the inherent difficulties of the process and the somewhat limited field of its application. With accurately controlled industrial processes and delicate laboratory measurements came the necessary incentive for improving electrostatic precipitation equipment, and recently it has been applied in the field of medicine for the treatment of such maladies as hay fever. The theory of electrostatic precipitation is reviewed briefly in this paper, and a new precipitator is described.