Re: SCIENCE FAIR BOTTLE CAPACITOR ExPERIMENT HELP!!!

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

Original poster: Karl L <karl-at-coolbluesky-dot-com> 

On Thu November 20 2003 7:28 pm, Tesla list wrote:
 > Original poster: "Lau, Gary" <gary.lau-at-hp-dot-com>

 > I suspect that Corona bottles are favored only because of the
 > appropriate name.  I've not heard of anyone doing any kind of actual
 > comparison to other bottle brands or colors.  If the person entering
 > the science fair is a minor, I wouldn't advocate using beer bottles;
 > glass iced tea bottles will surely work just as well.

I actually tested many types of bottles, both glass and plastic.  The
Corona beer bottles absolutely worked the best.  I never even considered
the name connection.  The bottles are a heavy-walled construction,
narrower than most beer bottles, and have a very thin neck.  This
combination allowed for a higher density per given space, and I
experienced no failures whatsoever.
 >
 >  >If you are on a super-tight budget - a 2 liter soda bottle either
 >  > wrapped in foil, or immersed in NaCl will also make an awesome cap.
 >  > The corona seems to appear right at the solution line, and can
 >  > ultimately  destroy the cap.unless an  oil layer is floated.
 >
 > Plastic soda bottles should not be used for Tesla coil caps.  The
 > dielectric losses in the plastic are many times higher than glass.
 >
However, an experimenter on a tight buget can utilize a plastic soda
bottle cap, and get fairly good results.  I tested many types of bottles,
and surprisingly, certain bottled water containers made excellent caps.
I never had one "fail", but corona leakage at the electrolyte level would
often degrade their performance.

 >  >Part of the fun and educational experience is in designing your own
 >  > cap, and testing :"by fire"  You should have no problem in coming up
 >  > with a hypothosis of some sort.

See my post on rolled transparancy caps
 >
 > Absolutely agree.
 >
 > Gary Lau
 > MA, USA