Re: Capacitors

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

Original poster: "Laurence Davis by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <meknar-at-hotmail-dot-com>

I had thought of this before also.  My design used flat plates and
hdpe sheets that moved in and out to change the capacitance.

Its not in reality, still just in my head for right now.
The two problems that I envisioned were:
1) moving the plates in and out will scratch the plastic and reduce the life 
of the cap.
2) HDPE sheets, I have been told, usually have imperfections/impurities
such as bubbles/voids. which can cause failure due to dielectric failure.
3) I wouldn't dare try to adjust a high voltage/high frequency capacitor.  
Reason being that the high frequency aspect of the attached components will 
allow an arc to travel much farther on surfaces than you would expect.  I 
wouldn't like to connect with a fully charged cap.
4) an adjustment mechanism to move said plates may bind and the design
needs to address this concern.

my two cents.
larry.

>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
>Subject: Capacitors
>Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2002 07:32:18 -0600
>
>Original poster: "John Richardson by way of Terry Fritz 
><twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jprich-at-up-dot-net>
>
>Hi Everyone,
>
>Initial disclaimer:  This may sound stupid!  That said, here goes.
<snip>
>
>What would the efficiency of a design such as this be?  What are the
>possibilities of finding a decent dielectric, and how thick would it need 
>to
>be?
>
>Thanks for entertaining my ramblings.
>
>John Richardson
>