RE: Possible capacitor

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

Original poster: "Dave Hartwick by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <ddhartwick-at-earthlink-dot-net>

I did a lot of experimentation with salt water caps a few years ago and by
far the best results were  had by using those squarish 4-5 gal white HDPE
containers used for food packing. Deli items like cole slaw and mac salad
are often stored in them. The wall thickness is on the order of 1/16".

I inserted these into plastic waste buckets found at walmart. The result was
a cap at about 20 nF (I think!) and good for firing with my 14.4 kV piglet
up to about 3 kVA, maybe more. I'm not sure about the 20 nf. I had a bank of
8 for a total of .025 mfd and think I had them connected in parallel, so
maybe they were 2 nf. In any case, 1 or 2 of these caps is sufficient for
small coils. You'll probably never blow the dielectric with NSTs, but with
pigs or MOT supplies, I did punch a few holes by opening the air-blast gap
too wide.

I added a 1/4" layer of mineral oil to the salt water for corona suppression
but am not sure it was worth it. Quite the mess if a bucket blew and needed
replacing. Corona still has a tendency to crawl up the sides. Still---I did
a huge amount of firing with those things.

Clearly though, my experience revealed that good plastic is clearly superior
to glass though I know others have achieved very good results with glass,
including Tesla himself. He was, of course, limited to the materials
available at the time.
Dave Hartwick




Original poster: "C.L. Mayeux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<poohbear1961-at-cox-dot-net>


As I was surfing the aisles at the local Wal-Mart today, I noticed something
that got me thinking.... quart-size mason jars...good glass ones, with screw
on dome-style lids.  Has anyone tried making a capacitor from one of these,
with half way decent results?
---
C.L. Mayeux
Owner, MSB Data Systems
poohbear1961-at-cox-dot-net
http://www.msbdatasystems.tk