caps, spark gap, and more

To: "'Tesla List'" <tesla-at-poodle.pupman-dot-com>
Subject: caps, spark gap, and more
From: Tesla List <tesla-at-stic-dot-net>
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 1997 22:29:00 -0500
Approved: tesla-at-stic-dot-net

From: 	Kevin[SMTP:wawa-at-spectra-dot-net]
Reply To: 	wawa-at-spectra-dot-net
Sent: 	Wednesday, September 10, 1997 8:39 PM
To: 	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: 	caps, spark gap, and more

I remember when I made my capacitors that I put oil on the top part. 
Well, they haven't been preforming so hot lately and I decided to take
one apart.  The oil does not resemble oil any more.  It looks like bacon
grease after it has cooled to a solid although the oil is still liquid. 
It smells pretty bad too.  What happened to it?

Also, I just had a thought but I don't know if it is any good or what. 
Would it be somehow beneficial to place something grounded between my
safety gap?

One last thing.  I'm a senior in high school and last year, for the
first time, a science fair sponsored by IBM was opened up to the
highschool level.  (I did research on chaos thoery and won first place
in the math catagory :-)  ).  Anyway, I was hoping I could enter my coil
in the competition.  There's just one thing, and it seems to bother me. 
The judges that they have aren't the brightest people in the world and
for most of them the first thing they'll ask is, "what practical
purposes does this serve?"  I've already been asked this by some people
and it really frustrates me.  Maybe because I don't have anything that I
can tell them or maybe it's just that I'm think, "hey, I spent three
months building this thing, you don't know what it is, you've never seen
one before, I think it's pretty darn cool, and you want to know what
it's used for."  Personally, I loved making, I love running it, and I
just amazed by my coil.  Sure I think they have a legitiment question,
but I just don't know how to respond.  Anyone want to help?  

Thanks,
Kevin