Gabriel asked:

>I need to pass 40-60A thru a wire to insure the capacity, but where do I get
>this much current without having to use a humungous load to drop the voltage
>and control the current.
>

How about keeping the average power requirements down by testing the wire
with a pulse? You can charge up a bank of caps to supply lots of current
for a short time. Put a sampling resistor (calibrated shunt) in series with
your wire to monitor the current.

Reg Neale