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Re: The manufacture of capacitors



>Date:          Tue, 10 Dec 1996 17:25:02 -0700
>From:          Tesla List <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
>To:            Tesla-list-subscribers-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com
>Subject:       Re: The manufacture of capacitors
>Reply-to:      tesla-at-pupman-dot-com

>> Subject: Re:  The manufacture of capacitors

>>From gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net Tue Dec 10 16:37:23 1996
>Date: Wed, 11 Dec 1996 06:22:47 -0800
>From: Gary Weaver <gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Re: The manufacture of capacitors

>Tesla List wrote:
> 
>> >From ed-at-alumni.caltech.edu Tue Dec 10 13:55:53 1996
>> Date: Mon, 9 Dec 1996 18:05:21 -0800 (PST)
>> From: "Edward V. Phillips" <ed-at-alumni.caltech.edu>
>> To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>> Subject: Re:  The manufacture of capacitors
> 
>> Re: Oil dielectric capacitors
>  >       Why not go the whole way and eliminate the solid dielectric
>> material between the plates?  I have an article in an old (circa
>> 1921) QST describing an 0.01 mfd, 30 kV capacitor using only oil
>> as the dielectric.  Quite a construction job  to get the plates
>> flat enough to avoid excessive average spacing, but genuinelyh
>> genuinely indestructable!!!!!!  By the way, this one worked at
>> the "special" wavelength of 350 meters, or about 857 kHz, so the
>> inductance must have been pretty small.
>>         Why doesn't some get ambitious?  Or, more likely, will
>> someone who HAS been ambitious describe his results.
>> Ed Phillips


>I had the same idea but did not know if it would work.

>Can you send me some construction information on that capacitor.

>Gary Weaver

>http://www.gweaver-at-earthlink-dot-net

Ed, Gary, All,

I saw some electrostatic precipitator (air cleaner) plate assemblies 
a few years ago in a scrap yard.  They were a cube about two feet on 
a side with solid aluminum plates (or perhaps stainless steel) about 
#18 guage held in the corners with ceramic insulator bushings to 
maintain a plate air spacing of about 3/8th's of an inch.  I passed 
on them at the time (way before I was active in coiling), but think 
now that immersed in a mineral oil bath they would make a mean, 
virtually indestructible H.V. capacitor.  I know where I may be able 
to acquire a pair of smaller units with stainless plates about 12 x 
15 inches x 10 inches I think.  Perhaps I shud grab 'em and try this 
out.  I saw these smaller ones more recently, and looked at them from 
an aspect of making just such an oil dielectric capacitor for a 
disruptive discharge Tesla coil operating from a pole pig, and recall that
calculations showed insufficient capacitance for this purpose.  However, T.C.'s
are only one area in which I now dabble where I require high voltage caps. 
I think others shud be on the lookout for these precipitator asssemblies, perhaps
try them and report back with results.  One aplication I can think of where you 
could use these things dry, as-is, is for the plate tank cap in a 
vacuum tube T.C.  Happy hunting!

rwstephens