Re: titanium or silver for spark gap ?

To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: Re: titanium or silver for spark gap ?
From: "Dan and Nancy" <ntesla-at-ntesla.csd.sc.edu> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 11:24:29 -0700
Approved: twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net
Delivered-To: fixup-tesla-at-pupman-dot-com-at-fixme

At 05:29 PM 2/17/00 -0700, you wrote:
>Original Poster: Hollmike-at-aol-dot-com 
>
>Jon,
>   I have used silver relay contacts for a spark gap with good results.  I
>always worried about catching Ti on fire, but don't know that it will or
>not.  Let us know if you try it and have no problems.  I have access to a
>lot of titanium at work and could cut many gaps from rods or tubing for
people.
>Mike

I got some 1/4 x 20 titanium hex-head bolts from Small Parts
(www.smallparts-dot-com) about 10 years ago to try in a spark-gap. I made
threaded brass posts for the screws and used a spring between the bolt-head
and the brass post to keep tension on the threads. The gap seemed to work
fine, and was nicely adjustable. However, there ended up being a residue of
white powder on the faces on the gap, which I'm assuming was titanium
dioxide. I'm not sure if that affected the conductivity or not. I haven't
used the gap since, but it didn't catch on fire or anything. Of course, I
was using "glass plate and foil" capacitors back then. It might make a
difference on a really high powered system.

Dan