Comments, with reply, on "On the relation between current pulses and discharges" by M.I. Qureshi and W.G. Chadband

The commenters examine the existence of a correlation between conduction current pulses and the growth of discrete prebreakdown streamers in DC stressed dielectric liquids. It is their contention that the apparent radial dominance in streamer propagation seen by M.I. Qureshi and W.G. Chadband (see ibid., vol.23, p.715-722, Aug. 1988) results from the small 2-mm gap spacing used in their work. They believe that the most probable cause of this characteristic is that streamers that propagate directly into the gap, and hence approach the grounded electrode, invariably terminate in breakdown. The authors reply that the thrust of their paper was to establish that within experimental limits all significant current pulses produced an accompanying shadow picture. In this way burst current work conducted by one author related to pulsed shadowgraph work by the other.<>