History and Aims of the Current Zero Club.

 

 

Picture of
Prof. D. Th. J. ter Horst,
Founder of the
Current Zero Club.
(1908-1976)

 

 

 

During the biannual (every two years) CIGRE Meeting of 1960 in Paris, France a number of electrical engineers and physicists interested in gas-discharges in circuit-breakers met privately to discuss current problems.

It was agreed that they needed a forum for free, informal discussion of circuit-breaker problems and research, uninhibited by commercial, national or similar restrictions.

Membership was accordingly restricted to those actively engaged in major researches and whose scientific integrity and confidentiality could be relied upon. It, of course, would place no restrictions whatever on any member who wished to make public his own work.

Such procedures were not possible at the CIGRE meeting where the function of each delegate is to represent his own country and/or company, institution, etc. Thus a select working group was founded by Prof. D. Th. J. ter Horst to be known as the “Current Zero Club”.

The first meeting was held in Arnhem in 1961, attended by about twenty members coming from ten countries. The meeting was managed by Prof. D. ter Horst and the chairman was Mr. Hochrainer.

Each member represented only himself, not his company, university or institution.

 

 

Werner Reider (1919-2006)
former chairman of the CZC Club
from 1977 to 1988.

 

 

 

The Scope of the Club

The sphere of activity of the Club is limited to interruption and make phenomena in high power circuit-breakers and its membership elected from those engaged in the field.
The subject would not be confined to the “interaction period” of about 100 μs around current zero but would include the whole arcing period or fault event in so far as this determines the initial conditions, both physical ( e. g. pressure, gas flow ) and electrical of that period.
All types of H.V. breakers, including H.V.D.C. breakers come within the scope of the club as well as considerations of mechanical and fluid dynamical behavior.
Contact phenomena, however are excluded in so far as they do not influence the interruption problem; they are to be considered, if they become important for the arcing phenomena, e.g. in vacuum interrupters.
For the time being it seems improbable that H.V. circuits could be interrupted economically by other means than the electric arc.
Nevertheless, should promising developments occur in such devices as synchronized contact separation, semiconductors, superconductivity or the like, then these would naturally be pursued.

Requirements for Membership:

(a)Only experts in the field of H.V. circuit-breaker arc research are eligible for membership and who are personally working either theoretically or experimentally in H.V. power interruption phenomena.
(b)The Club joins the active experts only but not their superiors or managers.
(c)Candidates for membership must have published relevant original papers in representative journals.
(d)The Level of these papers must be that of a ph.D. thesis (original scientific work).
(e)University degrees, memberships etc. are neither needed nor do they privilege the candidate.
(f)The Club is interested in uniting all international experts in the field.
(g)It is against the interest of the Club to contain members who are not working in circuit-breaking but in fields relevant as “ auxiliary sciences ”.
(h)The Club should not contain members who are not expected to continue in the field.

Election of Members:

(a)A candidate may be nominated by a member only after he delivered an original paper at the meeting.
(b)Members will be sent the curriculum and list of published papers of the nominee.
(c)Members will decide by a vote whether or not to promote the guest to the status of member.
(d)Reprints of the candidate’s paper and a listing of former publications must be distributed to all members before the meeting.
(e)At the closing meeting, the members present will decide on those guests to be nominated for membership.
(f)Written objections to candidates should be sent to the chairman within six months from the sending of the minutes to the member.
(g)If there is an objection against a candidate, a decision will be postponed until the next members’ assembly.

In summary, the entrance requirement to the Group was to have made significant contributions to research in the relevant field and to stay in this field.

See list of previous meetings.