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 which directly demonstrate that in the normal operating region of the devices breakdown is initiated by streamers launched from the trigger pin before the appearance of the trigger spark. We compare our results with those of previous workers, and discuss the generality of our conclusions. Our results also provide empirical information about the streamers.
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