Re: Somewhat of a newbie..

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

Original poster: "Jason Petrou by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jasonp-at-btinternet-dot-com>

Hi Ben,

> About 6 months ago I finally built my first coil. I've
> since had ALOT of questions and I remembered that the best
> minds colaborate on this list.. Anyway, my question
> involves capicitors.. I started out using saltwater caps
> made from beer bottles.. but I realized that I had no way
> of knowing how much capacitance I had.. is there any way to
> test them or is there some general default value per
> bottle?
Not sure... there is a standark capacitance for a pint bottle - cant
remember what it is though :)

> I also ordered 4 caps vacuum sealed in a glass
> envelope rated 12pF -at- 30kV each .. they're absolutely
> beautiful.. each one is about the diameter of a soup can
> and about 8 inches long.. will these work in coiling
> applications? The glass envelope is about 1/4 of an inch
> thick and the lugs on the ends are very hefty.. they look
> like they'd survive a nuclear war...
I reckon that they would do the job... however I cant say exactly. Do you
have any idea what the dielectric is? Some dielectrisc are completely
unsuitible for pulsed applications, whereas some are perfect.

> When I was subscribed to the list way back when I happened
> on a large tube labeled "Amperex 575A".. I asked around on
> the list and I was told that it was basically a giant
> switch capable of switching extremely large currents and
> that it would be excellent for building a DC coil.. since
> then I've come across anohter and the idea of using it is
> more and more appealing.. can anyone tell me more about it?
Possibly... I think that you would need four though and make an H bridge out
of them. I have a better idea: use it for a joule gun. Get a couple of high
power 1KJ caps and use them...

Have fun
Jason