RE: "aquarium gravel" in pole pig? :\

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

Original poster: "Philip Chalk" <phil-at-apsecurity-dot-com.au> 

Hi,

I don't know, I've never owned one :-(  Only touched one once.

But, I would guess it's a dessicant of some sort ('silica-gel' or
something), to absorb water, condensation from the oil.

I have some old military radios which are 'tropicalised' & have
dessicant cylinders in them - very nice, keeps the gold shiny too.

Or, maybe, someone's been keeping fish in it  :-)

Cheers,

Phil Chalk.


-----Original Message-----
From: Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com]
Sent: Wednesday, 11 February 2004 12:03 AM
To: tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject: "aquarium gravel" in pole pig? :\

Original poster: "J. Aaron Holmes" <jaholmes-at-silicon-arcana-dot-com>

Got a couple new [to me] pole pigs the other day.
15kVA -at- 14.4kV.  One's a Westinghouse, the other an
RTE.  Both are presently empty of oil.  I popped the
lid on the RTE today, and I see what looks like white
aquarium gravel in the bottom of the can and some on
the top of the transformer (I know that's not actually
what it is, of course).  Anybody have any idea what it
is?  Both units were certified working by the utility
I purchased them from, and I've called my contact
there to inquire but haven't heard back yet.  Looks
like it would be a real pain to pull the transformer
out and dust it off...thoughts?  Other than that, no
apparent problems.  Statically tests ok, but I'm not
throwing any voltage at it until I've added oil, of
course.

Regards,
Aaron