User:Brayhey/sandbox/Exploding Wire Method
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Exploding Wire Method (also known as EWM) is a process by which a dense rising current is applied to a thin electrically conductive wire. The heat vaporizes the wire, and an electric arc over that vapor creates a shockwave and explosion. Exploding Wire Method is most famously known to be used as a detonator in nuclear munitions, but is also used to create dense plasmas, extremely high temperatures, light sources for high speed photography and metal Nanoparticles.
History
The first documented case of using electricity to vaporize a metal is credited to Martin van Marum who melted 70 feet of metal wire with Leyden Jars as a capacitor. Benjamin Franklin vaporized thin gold leaf to burn an image onto paper. While neither Marum nor Franklin actually incited the exploding wire phenomenon, they were important steps towards its discovery.
Edward Nairne was the first to note the existence of the exploding wire method in 1774 with silver and copper wire. Faraday used EWM to deposit thin gold films. Vapor deposits of metal gas as a result of EWM were studied by August Toepler during the 19th century. In the early 1900's Braun discovered that the condensed vapor of the explosion was the metal itself and not an oxide.
http://www.belljar.net/Exploding_Wires.pdf and exploding wire research by J.R. McGrath.