Re: safety gaps on capacitors

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

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <FutureT-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 8/8/01 2:07:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, tesla-at-pupman-dot-com 
writes:

> Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" 
<Gary.
> Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>
>  
>  I would speculate that for oil-filled caps, there must be something solid 
in
>  addition to oil separating the plates, like paper, to define the plate
>  separation.  Assembling it otherwise would be impossible.  While an 
oil-only
>  dielectric might be able to self-heal following an arc over, an arc through
>  paper will not.
>  
>  Gary Lau
>  MA, USA

Gary,

I often use an air variable capacitor emersed in oil, so the only 
dielectric is oil.  Of course this cap is only 600pF and can
handle only about 10kV or so.  Lou Balint has a larger cap
he made up which can handle a somewhat higher voltage,
and has a larger value.  There's no particular limit
on this approach other than bulkiness.  See also my 
other posting.

John Freau