Re: The death of a classic - First look

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <acmq-at-compuland-dot-com.br>

Tesla list wrote:
> 
> Original poster: "Malcolm Watts by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <m.j.watts-at-massey.ac.nz>

> > The self-healing feature can result in runaway degeneration of a
> > capacitor in a string. 

> You're right - I overlooked the low duty cycle.

So, it is better to avoid overstressing the capacitors. I don't see
how to avoid the problem. Interconnecting parallel strings of
capacitors would distribute the voltage more uniformly even if
some of the capacitors have their capacitances reduced. Would also
create more powerful sparks if a dielectric breaks, what may 
be bad for the capacitors. A complicated solution can 
be to interconnect the strings with current-limiting small inductors
(or small resistors, but this would add losses).

Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz