Once saturated, the inductance of the saturable reactor drops dramatically.

Saturable reactor amplifiers were used for control of power to industrial furnaces.

Reset of the saturable reactor usually places a minimum off time requirement on GTO based circuits.

Because they are low-maintenance and very efficient, voltage controllers have largely replaced such modules as magnetic amplifiers and saturable reactors in industrial use.

A saturable reactor in electrical engineering is a special form of inductor where the magnetic core can be deliberately saturated by a direct electric current in a control winding.

Thus, in principle, a saturable reactor is already an amplifier, although before 20th century they were used for simple tasks, such as controlling lighting and electrical machinery as early as 1885.

Visually a mag amp device may resemble a transformer but the operating principle is quite different from a transformer - essentially the mag amp is a saturable reactor.

A voltage source and a series connected variable resistor may be regarded as a direct current signal source for a low resistance load such as the control coil of a saturable reactor which amplifies the signal.

Saturable reactors at mains (line) frequency are larger, heavier, and more expensive than electronic power controllers developed after the introduction of semiconductor electronic components, and have largely been replaced by thyristor dimmers using triacs or SCRs.

Saturable reactors provide a very simple means to remotely and proportionally control the alternating current (AC) through a load such as an incandescent lamp; the AC is roughly proportional to the direct current (DC) in the control winding.

Because the required inductance to achieve dimming varies with the size of the load, saturable reactors often have multiple taps, allowing a small inductance to be used with a large load or a larger inductance to be used with a smaller load.