RE: safety gaps on capacitors

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

Original poster: "Lau, Gary by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Gary.Lau-at-compaq-dot-com>

I would speculate that for oil-filled caps, there must be something solid in
addition to oil separating the plates, like paper, to define the plate
separation.  Assembling it otherwise would be impossible.  While an oil-only
dielectric might be able to self-heal following an arc over, an arc through
paper will not.

Gary Lau
MA, USA

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Tesla list [mailto:tesla-at-pupman-dot-com] 
Sent:	Wednesday, August 08, 2001 8:46 AM
To:	tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:	Re: safety gaps on capacitors

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>"
<Parpp807-at-aol-dot-com>

Anyone,
What would be the effects of shorting an oil filled capacitor?
If an oil filled capacitor arcs over internally is it ruined?
What happens to the oil dielectric? Is it carbonized?

I am referring to an oil filled capacitor  where the oil is the only 
dielectric
separating the plates of the capacitor.

Cheers,
Ralph Zekelman