Like glass-bulb valves, steel-tank mercury arc valves were built with only a single anode per tank ( a type also known as the " excitron " ) or with multiple anodes per tank.
2.
This excitation or " keep-alive " circuit was absolutely necessary for single-phase rectifiers such as the excitron and for mercury-arc rectifiers used in the high-voltage supply of radiotelegraphy transmitters, as current flow was regularly interrupted every time the Morse key was released.