Re: Golden Leaf Top Terminal?

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Hi Terry,
           FWIW - use of gold on connectors really has to do with its
corrosion resistance, not its melting point (which would be a concern
with spark contact). In fact it _erodes_ rather readily which is why
it is rarely used in pure form in jewellery (as well as selling for a
good deal more than it's worth). If you do the expt, please tell us
how it goes.

Malcolm

On 21 Apr 2005, at 19:09, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: Terry Fritz <teslalist@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Hi,
>
> My eye was caught with a little gold leaf toy at the store the other
> day:
>
> http://www.goldvials.com/goldvials/goldvials.htm
>
> Just a little jar filled with mineral oil and a bunch of gold leaf.
> Really pretty!!  Genuine Colorado gold too ;-))
>
> So that got me thinking about the old thread about coating the top
> terminal with gold leaf...  We wondered if it would just burn off like
> the aluminum in a CD.  Or, maybe just the thin coating ( 2 millionths
> of an inch thick!!) over metal would be protected and would last just
> fine...  Gold is very resilient to electrical burning off...
>
> I was just wondering if anyone every actually "did it"?  and how it
> worked out?
>
> 3.375 x 3.375 sheets of gold leaf can be bought in QTY 25 for about
> $40.
>
> http://www.zinnober.biz/
>
> You paying for the pounding since that $40 gets you enough gold to
> make a square of gold only 0.001 inch on a side!!!  But just a tiny
> fraction of that "looks" like a lot ;-)))  Somebody can figure out how
> much 1 billionth of a square inch of gold is worth ;-))
>
> But if gold leaf would stand up to arcing, it would be a cool thing to
> cover a top terminal with!!
>
> Cheers,
>
>  Terry
>
>
>