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Re: Help please - info on big CDE pulse caps?



Original poster: "Jim Mitchell" <electrontube@xxxxxxxxx>

Usually, HED pulse caps will not have large "frankenstein" like insulators on top, and have a low inductance ring type insulator.

JM
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2005 8:20 PM
Subject: Help please - info on big CDE pulse caps?


Original poster: FIFTYGUY@xxxxxxx
Folks-

I sent this e-mail to the Geek Group first, but haven't gotten any response. So I'm gonna try here:

I've got access to a dozen good-sized pulse caps made by CDE. I would like more specifications on them. Cornell-Dubilier has been a great sponsor for Coilers, and hopefully the other people on this list with long-time relations with the major cap manufacturers can help me out.
Well, here's all the info I have on these particular caps. I was told by the surplus dealer who acquired them a few years back that the story *he* got was they came from the DEW (Distant Early Warning) Line system. FYI, this was a long-range radar system the US set up in 1952-54 in several remote northern sites in Canada and Greenland to detect a pre-emptive bomber or missile strike by the Soviet Union over the North Pole. Western Electric received a $500 million contract for the system (in 1952 dollars!) which had something like 60 different sites. The DEW Line was dismantled after the end of the Cold War in the '90's, which was when the caps showed up as surplus (along with a van-sized transmitter which he declined!).
These particular caps certainly had some military application, and some have tags printed with a military form ("DD FORM 1574, 1 OCT 66"). What I would like to know is how suitable these particular caps might be for Tesla Coil primary tank use, or just for energy-discharge (quarter-shrinker/exploding wire, or Marx Generator) use. Specs like ESR, repetitive pulse rating, voltage reversal, peak current, etc. would of course be nice. :)
The caps themselves are a reasonable 9" wide by 12" deep by 25" tall, with a single 16" tall by 5" diameter insulator on top of that. Kinda heavy. Connection is via the terminal on top of the insulator and by the case of the caps themselves (mounting flanges on the bottom and "ears" on the sides of the case).
Ink on the sides reads:
"CORNELL DUBILIER ELECTRONICS
TKB 165
.15 MFD 120KVDC
50[degree]C MAX OPERATING
SERIAL NO. 109
MANUFACTURED FOR RCA SERVICE COMPANY
CAMDEN, NEW JERSEY, PER CEMCO
SPECIFICATION NUMBER 3079B
MODIFIED PER G-41839002-J31 DATED 17 JUL 1964"


Another, although inked "SERIAL NO. 56", has the above except:
"MODIFIED PER G-51129024-J33 DATED 5-25-65"
So it would appear the serial numbers were not necessarily consecutive in the entire series. You will also note the dates on the caps are for a dozen years after the initial construction and operation of the DEW Line, perhaps these were spares made at a later date, for a design change, or an expansion. Perhaps they were for an entirely different system.
If the ".15MFD" means .15 micro-Farads, then they are kinda big for their energy storage. Perhaps the high voltage rating explains this disproportionate case size and insulator height. They are definitely oil-filled, and I am told by someone who dissected one that they have an internal voltage-distribution network of resistors. One has been a tad leaky at the base of the insulator, but the leak is very thick and sticky - like molasses.
In any event, the military tags read:
"SERVICABLE TAG - MATERIAL
CONDITION CODE: A
FSN PART NO. AND ITEM DESCRIPTION:
5910 00 999 2414 TKB 465 [sic - should be TKB 165] CAPACITOR
UNIT OF ISSUE: EA
QUANTITY: 1
REMARKS: M/F. M.I.T. LINCOLN LAB."


This last line is interesting. Someone suggested they were donated to the MIT for their research, and then found their way to surplus. Instead I feel this means that MIT was involved in their manufacture somehow. Their Lincoln Labs apparently still does some neato Gov't research stuff for DARPA and such.
Hopefully this should be enough for someone to track down these things and help me with some further info. Cornell-Dubilier, RCA, Western Electric, MIT/Lincoln Labs, the DOD and the DEW Line - there's certainly a bit of history in them.
Thank you very much for any help ya'll can provide!


-Phil LaBudde