Re: "plate" capacitors

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <uncadoc-at-juno-dot-com>

Hi Chris, All.  I tried these darn glass plate caps in varying formations
and they all gave up with a giant blue arc across the plates.  We used
12" x 10" window glass and tried with eight and sixteen glass
plates(standard cleaned recycled in good condition panes) and each time,
as soon as we cranked up the current, the darn things arced a great blue
arc and shorted out. Maybe we put too much power into them, but they
looked real promising and nasty, but they gave up with a simple blue
streak and glow between the plates.  We gave up on them and got Barium
Titanate caps and we have never looked back since.  The stacked Barium
Titanates were the key to our successful coiling!    Al..  

On Wed, 18 Apr 2001 16:47:51 -0600 "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
writes:
> Original poster: "Christopher Boden by way of Terry Fritz 
> <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <chrisboden-at-hotmail-dot-com>
> 
> I still use the bucket caps for the occasional tinkering. And I plan 
> on 
> building a large glass plate cap. I already have about 400 pieces of 
> glass 
> in stock and it's a simple matter of giving them a good cleaning (I 
> LOVE 
> Simple Green, if you don't have any GET SOME!) and stacking them up. 
> I think 
> it's a great way to teach the concepts of capacitors and the blue 
> glow is 
> beautiful. Who cares if they're lossy. If I'm running the coil, I'm 
> MMC all 
> the way, bit there are applicaitons for the plate caps. They're a 
> tool, like 
> everything else :).
> 
> 
> >Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" 
> ><A123X-at-aol-dot-com>
> >
> >Actually with those caps the Geek group is selling sound like they 
> are 
> >going
> >to be very cheap anyway. I kinda like the fact that I actually 
> built the 
> >cap
> >though. Seeing the result and thinking "I made that" isn't quite 
> the same 
> >to
> >me as seeing the result and thinking "I bought that". I guess MMC's 
> are 
> >kinda
> >half way though.
> >
> >In a message dated 4/17/01 8:45:12 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> >tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
> >writes:
> >
> >
> > >
> > > If you rate the caps at $/MTBF (mean time between failures), or
> > > total cost per year of service, rather than just initial 
> dollars, I 
> >don't
> > > think the above statement is always true. Low cost, short-lived, 
> high
> > > maintenance items are seldom a bargain unless you are passing 
> them off 
> >to
> > > someone else
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> 
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> 

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