[en] We attempted to implode a conducting metal linear at high velocity, and our failure to do so led to switching, or rapidly transferring the field from pushing an aluminum conductor to snow-plowing a half-atmosphere of xenon gas. We successfully initiated convergent xenon gas shocks with the use of a magnetohydrodynamic switch and coaxial high-explosive, flux-compression generators. Principal diagnostics used to study the imploding xenon gas were ¹³³Xe radioactive tracers, continuous x-ray absorption, and neutron output. We compressed the xenon gas about five to sixfold at a velocity of 10 cm/μs at a radius of 4 cm. The snowplow efficiency was good; going from 13- to 4-cm radius, we lost only about 20% of the mass. The temperature of the imploded sheath was determined by mixing deuterium with the xenon and measuring the neutron output. Using reasonable assumptions about the amount, density, and uniformity of the compressed gas, we estimate that we reached temperatures as high as 155 eV. Energy-loss mechanisms that we encountered included wall ablation and Taylor instabilities of the back surface