Re: Corson Pulse Capacitors

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

Original poster: "Crow Leader by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <tesla-at-lists.symmetric-dot-net>

 > Original poster: "Matthew Smith by way of Terry Fritz
<twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <matt-at-kbc-dot-net.au>
 >
 > Hi All
 >
 > I've done a bit of a gamble and have just bought nine pulse capacitors,
 > 2x1.5nF in series per can.  These are pulse rated at 300pps at 15kV (don't
 > know whether this is AC or DC).  A trawl through the archive shows that
 > someone had something similar back in 1995, but the thread didn't go on
 > long enough to be conclusive.  These caps don't look exactly new, but the
 > way some of them are packed would suggest that they may well be unused.
 >
 > These beasties were made by Corson Electric - Google can't find a site for
 > them, so I don't know if they're still going.

Corson went out of business decades ago.

 > 1) Does anyone think that these would be suitable for a tank cap?
 >
 > 2) Although steel-cased, should they be in a further steel box in case of
 > fragmentation?

Probably not. They don't sound like fierce energy storage caps with enough
energy to explode, or to shoot a terminal into your head.

 > 3) If they are rated to 300pps, any break rate under this should be OK,
true?
 >
 > 4) I'm proposing to use four 1:10 MOT's to give me 13.6kV (240-1-50 in);
is
 > this getting a little too close to comfort to the 15kV rating?  If I use
 > each as a single capacitor, series jumpered (0.75nF -at- 30kV?), I can get a
 > total capacitance of 6.75nF.  However, if I jumper for parallel, I have
 > 27nF, but close on voltage tolerance?
 >
 > I notice that the terminals are all wired together - taking no chances!

High voltage caps are shipped with the terminals shorted out. You should
store them shorted out as well. Because of hystersis, you can get a shock
off a previously discharged capacitor, seconds minutes or hours later.

KEN

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