The influence of charging current rise rate on the maximum operating current was determined for a 42‐layer Nb&sngbnd;Zr solenoid 15.24 cm long with an i.d. of 3.05 cm and an o.d. of 5.74 cm which generated a magnetic field of 1.4 kG/A. A rise rate of 10.7 A/sec (15 kG/sec) was found to lower the maximum operating current of this solenoid by ∼30%. In addition, the rise‐rate dependence of the transition current was determined with various configurations of built‐in electrical shorts. In all cases, the presence of a short greatly increased the rise rate dependence, and in several cases led to depression of the transition current by more than 50% for rise rates as small as 0.2 A/sec (0.28 kG/sec). These results indicate that the strong rise‐rate dependence of the transition current observed in some superconducting solenoids arises from the presence of shorts, and is influenced more strongly by the rate of change of field than by the current rise rate. Several relations have been derived which accurately predict the rise‐rate dependence of the critical current of a shorted superconducting solenoid.