kenotronn.
/ˈkɛnətrɒn/, U.S. /ˈkɛnəˌtrɑn/ A kind of highly evacuated thermionic diode designed for rectification at high voltages. Kenotron was formerly a proprietary name in the U.S.
ΚΠ
1915 S. Dushman in Gen. Electric Rev. Mar. 159/2 In the case of a rectifier containing a hot filament as cathode and exhausted to as high a degree of vacuum as possible, there is no conduction except by electrons. In order to distinguish the latter type of hot cathode rectifier from other forms..the designation, kenotron, has been specially coined.
1915 Electrician 21 May 242/1 A kenotron has been built capable of rectifying 250 milliamperes at 180,000 volts.
1918 Official Gaz. (U.S. Patent Office) 1 Jan. 291/1 General Electric Company... Kenotron... Rectifying apparatus. Claims use since about May, 1916.
1919 J. A. Fleming Thermionic Valve 74 The result has been the production of what may be called an ideally perfect Fleming Valve, which highly exhausted valve,..has been rechristened a Kenotron.
1946 W. T. Sproull X-rays in Pract. vii. §6. 120 Kenotrons are widely used in the electric circuits that are provided to supply the high voltage for x-ray tubes.
1946 W. T. Sproull X-rays in Pract. vii. 121 In an x-ray tube, the space current is said to be ‘emission limited’, while in a kenotron the current is ‘space charge limited’, as in most radio vacuum tubes.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1915