A spark-chamber detector is a particle detector, that is, a device used in particle physics for detecting electrically charged particles. It was most widely-used in the 1970s, and has since been superseded by more sophisticated detectors such as drift chambers and silicon detectors; however, spark chambers are still of scientific value due to their relative simplicity.
Spark-chamber detectors consists of metal plates placed in a sealed box filled with gas (for example, helium, neon or a mixture of the two); as a particle travels through the detector, it will ionize the gas between the plates, and a trigger system is used to apply high voltage to the plates to create an electric field immediately after the particle went through the chamber, producing sparks on its exact trajectory.
Spark-chamber detectors are generally less accurate than bubble-chamber detectors; however, they can be made highly selective with the help of auxiliary detectors, thus proving useful in searching for very rare events.
However the sparkchamber is still of great scientific value in that it remains relatively simple and cheap to build as well as enabling an observer to view the paths of charged particles.
Sparkchambers in real research, would, for example often be used in conjunction with a large magnetic field, which would deflect particles.
Below is a brief history of the milestones in the development of the sparkchamber, which hopefully give an insight into the key stages which occurred in the development of the sparkchamber as a particle detector.
Spark plugs have an insulated center electrode which is connected by a heavily insulated wire to an induction coil or magneto circuit on the outside, forming, with a grounded terminal on the base of the plug, a spark gap inside the cylinder.
The metal case of the spark plug bears the torque of tightening the plug, serves to remove heat from the insulator and pass it on to the cylinder head, and acts as the ground for the sparks passing through the center electrode to the side electrode.
Spark plugs are typically designed to have a spark gap which can be adjusted by the technician installing the spark plug, by the simple mechanism of bending the ground electrode slightly to bring it closer to or further from the center electrode.
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