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Re: Puncture voltage



 > When we coilers refer to a glass capacitor 'blowing up' it is  
 > just a figure of speech.  There is no explosion,... well       
 > hardly ever... RSS

Explosions would be another thread. I have had a couple of
secondary coils explode, but never a capacitor. I did hear a 
good one from Bill Wysock who blew a glass cased high voltage
filter cap in his living room with impressive results. I have
never heard of a homemade capacitor exploding, generally they 
flash a bit of light and go "plutz".

 > An alternate to a glass plate and aluminum foil cap is one     
 > made with beer or wine bottles.  Fill them with a saturated    
 > solutuion of water and table, or rock salt to about 2/3rds     
 > full.  Place all these bottles in a plastic tub which is       
 > itself filled with the same brine solution so as the level in  
 > the outer tub, bucket, etc, is the same as the level inside    
 > the bottles.  Loop a piece of bare copper wire, (#14 works)    
 > into all the bottles making good contact with the saltwater.   
 > This becomes one terminal of your capacitor.  Run a length of  
 > the same type bare wire around inside and below the surface 
 > of the saltwater in the tub.  This is the other connection. 
 > RSS

Good cheap beginners cap.. The salt water sinks heat which keeps
things cool. The losses are very high, but they are cheap, easily
built, and easily repaired/maintained. Tesla used salt water
capacitors in Colorado Springs.

 > Anyone out there know the capacitance of a beer bottle?

Assuming  K ~ 7.0, each bottle has approx. .0005 uF capcitance.

Richard Quick 


... If all else fails... Throw another megavolt across it!
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