This article is of a somewhat unusual nature, being a slightly edited version of an original unpublished note written in 1970 This was some 11 years after work started on modern short pulse power technology at Atomic Weapons Research Establishment (AWRE). Sandia found out about us in early 1964 and Tom Martin had built Hermes II before this note was written. I cannot remember why I wrote the note, but some of the general potentiality of the technology was becoming apparent Most of the defense applications were clear after two or three years work. The note was designed as an overview to help general workers build small to medium-sized pulse power machines, so they could join in the fun. The note covers in broad outline the approaches then available and provides formulae and breakdown data of an adequate nature to do this. Great accuracy was not the aim since any builder would use safety factors. Since I understand that the invitation to publish this article is both technical and historical, the temptation to rewrite it from the Point of view of the best available present data has been resisted Consequently, while the breakdown data, etc., have not been modernized, the values given are still believed to be adequate for design purposes. However, better data and relations do exist and a very good summary of these, useful formulae, etc., is provided in "Pulse Power Formulary," by R.J. Adler [15].
