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

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

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


I finally figured out how to get the lid off the of
the Westinghouse unit last night, and was pleasantly
surprised to discover that it did *not* have any of
that stuff in it.  It was quite clean.  Funny also is
the fact that, despite having all the same numbers on
the nameplate, the Westinghouse is physically about
20% larger than the RTE, and the can is at least twice
as thick.  It still has about an inch of oil in the
bottom.  Bonus! :)

aaron

 > 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).