"Chris Lewis" wrote in message
...

It takes good design to reliably interrupt a 400-600A circuit
without blowing up the neighborhood. Especially at higher
voltages.

If you think that's bad, you should see the breakers they have
to use with higher ampacities and voltages. "air blast arc
suppression" etc.

Speaking of which, check out this very cool site:

http://teslamania.delete.org/frames/longarc.htm

In particular, check out the two (large) videos of the HV disconnect
switches opening hot. Very exciting!

You may also be fascinated by the coin shrinking tricks elsewhere on the
author's site.

- Michael