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BIG Capacitors




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From:  Edward V. Phillips [SMTP:ed-at-alumni.caltech.edu]
Sent:  Tuesday, February 17, 1998 11:54 AM
To:  tesla-at-pupman-dot-com
Subject:  Re:  BIG Capacitors

Justin:

        Any idea how big a 100 uF 18 kV capacitor would be?
You can get 4800 ufd 450 volt electrolytic capacitors pretty
cheaply at swap meets (less than a buck around here).  40 of
those in series would be 120 ufd at 18 kV, if you could 
equalize the voltages with shunt resistors across each 
capacitor.  Since typical leakage is of the order of 2 ma,
that wouldn't take too much power.  I have used one of these
very successfully in a magnet charger, and think the series
resistance isn't more than a couple of ohms.  Have looked at
the can crusher page, but can't remember how many turns on
the primary, so hard to judge what peak current is.  This
may or may not be a foolish idea, but I'm sure discharging
such a bank would be pretty spectacular.

Ed