The trigatron has been in widespread use as a demand-triggered, high-voltage switch for more than 40 years. In spite of the popularity and maturity of the technology, there persists an uncertainty over the basic physical mechanism(s) responsible for triggering breakdown in the devices. We present the results of an empirical study of trigatrons that demonstrates that breakdown is initiated by a streamer launched from the trigger pin, independent of the trigger spark. We compare our results with those of previous workers, and discuss the generality of our conclusions.
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