Abstract: Thermal insulating gaseous blankets, generated by contact of a quench liquid with a hot metal workpiece, are displaced from downwardly directed surfaces by sequentially elevating the workpiece, at points about its periphery, so as to promote migration of the trapped gas across such surfaces. The improved heat transfer that results increases the levels of hardness and strength exhibited by the treated workpiece.

Abstract: Improved generation, insulated confinement and heating of ultra-high temperature steady-state plasmas in such devices as the optical plasmotron of Raizer and the freely floating plasma filament of Kapitza wherein the temperature of the plasma is increased by increasing the static pressure of the ambient medium (or decreasing the frequency of the radiant energy supply) while increasing the radiant energy supply's power and wherein the relationships between the ambient pressure, the amount of initially projected ionizing energy, the focal spot radius of this initial energy, the wavelength of the radiant energy supply, the transparency of the plasma, the rate of bremmstrahlung radiation energy losses, the power of the radiant energy supply and the ratio of the static pressure increase (or frequency decrease) are so optimized as to enable attainment of plasma temperatures more than an order of magnitude greater than hitherto attainable by any process of such a type.

Abstract: A high temperature plasma is magnetically confined without leaks or cusps in a smooth toroidal configuration by tangential magnetic field lines on its surface which have a zero rotation number, and include a selected finite even non-zero number of closed toroidal magnetic field lines, which are limit cycles in the sense that all other surface field lines are asympototic to neighboring pairs of these closed field lines, and the poloidal cross-section of the plasma is non-convex. The resulting unique structure makes the confined plasma relatively insensitive to approximations, tolerances, and variations in the parameters of design, construction and operation. Furthermore, use of the sense of averaging appropriate to evaluation of interchange instabilities shows that the resulting magnetic bottle is an optimal toroidal magnetic well.

Abstract: A high temperature plasma is confined in the shape of a topological torus by a topologically stable magnetic field which is everywhere constant on and tangent to the surface of the torus. There are exactly an even finite number of closed magnetic field lines on the plasma surface and all other magnetic field lines on the surface are asymptotic to the closed field lines. This magnetic field configuration is achieved by a set of current carrying conductors appropriately arranged with respect to the plasma and carrying suitably selected currents.