Pulsed Abnormal Glow Discharge - paper by Paolo and Alexandra Correa.

Anomalous cathode reaction forces varying in proportion to the square of the input current were first identified separately by Tanberg and Kobel, in 1930, during studies of cathode vaporization in "vacuum"-arc discharges (VADs) and stationary cathode spots (1,2). In his original paper, Tanberg made a case for the presence of longitudinal forces on electrodynamic interactions, which he attributed to the counterflow of vaporized cathode particles (1), but K. Compton demonstrated that the vapor jet only accounted for <2% of the reaction force's magnitude (3). He suggested a different interpretation of the the electrodynamic anomaly, arguing for a mechanical rebound, at the cathode, of charge-neutralized gas ions that hit the cathode in the course of the discharge (bombardment rebound) (3).

In the 1940's, little work was done on the North-American continent on the presence of longitudinal forces in plasma discharges. The notable exceptions may have been the self-funded research of W. Reich and of T.H. Moray. Reich claimed to have discovered a spontaneous pulsatory activity of the space medium in cold cathode diodes sealed at high vacuum, and to have achieved oscillatory frequencies that reached 30 Kc (4). He equally claimed to have designed a motor circuit driven by the cyclic discharge in question, but all the details of the circuits were kept secret by Reich, and have remained so since the burning and banning of his publications by the FDA in 1956. His suspicious death in prison followed shortly thereafter in 1957. M.B. King (5) has suggested that anomalous lightning balls were produced in corona discharge tubes designed by T.H.Moray (6), possibly by tuning the plasma diode to resonate with heavy ion acoustic oscillations (7), but again the details are scanty. To our knowledge, no one has reproduced the vacuum experiments of Reich or Moray.

German electromagnetic cannons were retrieved by the Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee in 1945, which reportedly were capable of firing lightning balls into the atmosphere (8), and Dr. H. Aspden has drawn our attention to the efforts of Kapitza, in Russia, to drive the formation of plasma balls in vacuum tubes with an RF source (9). Kapitza apparently realized that the energy densities of lightning balls were of the magnitude required to initiate nuclear fusion. During the fifties, the US fusion program also investigated the suitability of utilizing anomalous reaction forces in exploding wires subject to high current surges and in 'axial pinch' voltage reactors, to create alternative neutron sources (10).

Admission of longitudinal interactions has always been problematic for the relativistic law of Lorentz (11), as well as for the Bio-Savart treatments of Ampere's Law (12). Quantum treatments of (high) field-emission, such as the Fowler-Nordheim law (strong fields pull out electrons with low energies, ie Fermi electrons) (13), also did not take these interactions into account.

Subsequent research in the 1950's concentrated mainly on the study of cathode and anode spots, as well as on cathode erosion by crater formation (14-15). Confirmation of Tanberg's longitudinal flow hypothesis would have to wait until the 1960's, but mass spectrometric studies carried out by several groups (16-19) indicated that the atomic particles involved were not neutral atoms, but mostly singly and multiply charged ions with energies exceeding the total VAD voltage. Measurements performed by Kimblin (20-22) of the fractional ion current supplied to the VAD, suggested a nearly invariant contribution in the order of 6 to 10% of the total VAD current. Combined with the detection of some neutral atom contributions to this anomalous reaction flow, these findings caused much initial resistance among arc physicists.

By the 1960's, it had become apparent that the presence of tremendous electrodynamic forces acting longitudinally in the direction of the discharge could not be accounted for by the Lorentz/Bio-Savart Law. Moreover, as Plyutto et al remarked, the Tanberg vaporization hypothesis also could not explain the observed dependence of cathode reaction forces on gas pressure, nor the high velocity plasma streams emerging from the cathode (18). Plyutto's model of an ambipolar mechanism, where the electrons sweep the ions forward as a function of the anomalous rise of potential in front of the cathode spot, while the spot moves backwards, may well explain the dynamic relation of these forces, but not their initiation mechanism.

Aren't you the one who previously tried to claim being low IQ was something to be proud of?

As opposed to who?