2026-10-04 APS journals (link.aps.org / journals.aps.org) - Trichel

URL: https://journals.aps.org/pr/abstract/10.1103/PhysRev.54.1078 (abstract page, read from a screenshot; get_page_text was refused on this domain). The full text is behind a paywall (institutional login). No login attempted.

Found [web]: G. W. Trichel, "The Mechanism of the Negative Point to Plane Corona Near Onset", Phys. Rev. 54, 1078, published 15 December 1938; about 348 citing articles listed by APS. The abstract (paraphrase) says: - oscillograms of negative point-to-plane corona in air show the current is made of discrete pulses; - their size and frequency have a definite relation to corona current, point size and gas pressure; - the frequency appears independent of gap length under the conditions studied; - the oscillations are not affected by the electrical constants of the external circuit; - the periodic behaviour seems to come from space-charge formation in the gap and its clearing by the field.

Bearing on the claims: - Claim 2 (mechanism): Trichel's own 1938 statement is "space charge formation ... and subsequent clearing". The ESA paper's mechanism is a numerical version of this. - Claim 1: the abstract ties frequency to current, point size and pressure, and calls it gap-independent. That matches the ESA paper's introduction [read: p.1]. - Trichel reports the pulses as not affected by the external circuit constants. Sattari's thesis found that period depends on the external resistance R_ext in simulation (see uwo note). That is a point for reviewers. - Citation error: Phys. Rev. 55, 382 (1939) is the POSITIVE-corona paper [web] https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRev.55.382. The ESA paper's ref. [2] points there with year 1938.

Recheck: yes. Look for a free scan of the 1938 paper. Possible sources: APS free-to-read for old papers, or a Loeb book reproducing Trichel's oscillograms, Fig. 243.