Re: Bottle Capacitors

["Richard Kircher" <richard.kircher-at-worldnet.att-dot-net> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

At 11:35 PM 7/9/00 -0600, you wrote:
>Original poster: Irrelative-at-aol-dot-com 
>
>I'm making bottle capacitors out of Snapple bottles but I have a quick 
>question.  Snapple bottle caps are made of metal - will using them affect
the 
>capacitence or somehow make them not work?  I've read that you should find 
>plastic caps, but I just want to know if it will make a difference cause 
>finding something made of plastic to cap a snapple bottle is gonna take a
bit 
>of work.  Thanks in advance!    --Justin
> 

Hi Justin,
	I have never built a bottle capacitor, but my understanding is that the
principle is the same as a Leyden Jar and is made by wrapping the outside
of the bottle with tin foil that becomes one plate of the capacitor.  The
plastic or glass bottle is the dielectric material between the plates.  The
capacitor is filled with conductive salt water which becomes the other
plate of the capacitor.  Connection to the salt water is made by inserting
a conducting rod into the salt water thru the top of the bottle.  The cap
is not used so it should not matter what it is made of.
Dick