The cross-air-blast circuit breaker

C. G. Suits (nonmember; General Electric Company, Schenectady, N. Y.): When the great complexity of the physical phenomena in a breaker of this kind is considered, it must be agreed that the authors have done a very satisfactory job of interpreting their measurements. Their discovery that there are regions in the current and voltage range of the breaker where displacement phenomena and cooling phenomena may be identified represents a fundamental advance in our knowledge of the interrupting mechanism. Too often in the past it has been the effort of workers in this field to prove that a single mechanism was active to the exclusion of all others. In view of the findings of this paper it is not surprising that it has been possible to make out a very good case for both a displacement theory and a deionization theory in specific instances. In the present case both are found and their domains are defined. The discussion of this question in appendix C of the authors´ paper is particularly good.