Pre-Charged Condensers in Series and in Parallel

A condenser is charged from a source of direct voltage, and then is used as a booster in series with this source to charge another condenser. By repeating this process a large number of times the second condenser is finally subjected to twice the voltage of the source. This is the principle of the Delon apparatus for testing cables, and is explained in a numerical example. Then the more general case of two or more ``pre-charged'' condensers in series is considered, when these condensers are connected to some source of direct voltage; it is shown how to determine the final distribution of voltages among them. A similar problem is solved for pre-charged condensers in parallel. Finally a general network of pre-charged condensers is considered, and equations are derived similar to Kirchoff's laws, from which the final distribution of voltages and charges may be computed knowing the initial distribution.