Gas blast switch

Gas blast switch with a resting contact piece and a rodlike movable contact piece which can be axially engaged with the resting contact piece, and with a housing, the interior of which is divided into

• an arcing enclosure which extends between a consumable electrode situated in front of the resting contact piece and a separation wall fitted into the housing, remote from said consumable electrode in the switching-off direction and having an aperture for the passage of the movable contact piece,
• a quenching enclosure which extends between said separation wall and an intermediate partition fitted into the housing on the far side of said separation wall, again as seen in the switching-off direction, and
• an expansion enclosure, which lies on the side of the partition opposite to the quenching enclosure to which it becomes connected by a gas-path through a channel which is freed from the movable contact piece during the switching movement,
• where the arcing enclosure and the quenching enclosure are connected by way of a storage enclosure which has a larger capacity than the arcing enclosure and exhibits at least one flow-diverter, characterized in that the resting contact piece cooperates with an insulating follower piston which it surrounds, and which is urged into its resting position by the action of the movable contact piece and against the force of a spring during the switching-on movement, and where during the switching-off movement the follower piston will follow the movable contact piece until it leaves the partitioning wall, and will thereafter close the aperture of the same, which aperture lies between the arcing enclosure and the quenching enclosure, and where the border zones of the partitioning wall aperture facing the arcing enclosure and the quenching enclosure, respectively, are electrically connected.