Re: Term: Mag Amp

Jon Elson wrote:

> Sorry, old technology. Mag amp is short for a magnetic amplifier.
> This goes back to WW-II, and certainly Korea.
> A way of getting a lot of gain without much energy loss is to use a winding
> of many turns of fine wire to drive an inductor into and out of saturation.
> When the inductor is saturated, AC current passes through a winding
> of a modest number of turns of heavy wire fairly easily. When the control
> winding does not saturate the inductor, then the inductance blocks the
> power flow through the power winding.
>

Ah! You mean a "saturable reactor". These were once the cutting edge
technology for stage lighting dimmers - until someone invented the
thyristor.

Mike