Abstract: A vacuum interrupter includes a small sized, rigid exciting coil disposed immediately behind at least one main electrode so as to be connected at one end to a current carrying rod and at the other end to the main electrode, and consisting of a plurality of sectoral-shaped unit exciting coils arranged adjacent to each other in a plane substantially parallel to the surface of the main electrode and having the same polarity, in which, when electric currents branched from a main electric current are flowed through the respective unit exciting coils, magnetomotive forces generated due to the electric currents flowing radially of the unit exciting coils are cancelled with respect to each other and only the electric currents flowed through the arcuate sections of the unit exciting coils induce electromotive forces effective to produce magnetic fields in a direction perpendicular to the main electrode.