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Re: Can crushing with capacitor bank

On Fri, 25 Sep 1998, Brian Jones wrote:

Folks:

Interest here has been expressed, as it is periodically, on developing this
demonstration in which an empty pop can is crushed when current through a
loop of copper from a big capacitor bank is triggered.

The capacitors can sometimes be had for a few hundred $$ in surplus
catalogs. Somebody recently said that the U of Washington was selling
them in surplus auction (they used them for some sort of plasma-pinch
fusion research.)

Before going any further, do you commonly use 22 cal pistols,
shotguns, and small bombs as part of demonstrations? The can-crusher is
on the same order of danger. Conductors can shatter and produce shrapnel.
If a person were to touch the terminals, electrocution would NOT be the
main worry. Think instead of exploded muscle tissue and high-speed bone
fragments.

A local hobbyist used a can-crusher capacitor to produce perfume as
follows. Close all the safeguard shorting bars. Place a (pitless) cherry
or strawberry across the output terminals. Charge the system. Have the
audience cover their ears. Fire the pneumatic contactor, and **BOOM**!
The cherry is GONE. It is converted into a large cloud of cherry-scented
mist. The same demo can be performed with any water-containing material.
Now imagine the failsafe system you'd need in order to keep this from ever
happening to the fingers of untrained staff members. In particular, you'd
need to keep untrained people from attempting repairs when the system
manfunctions.

((((((((((((((((((((( ( ( ( ( (O) ) ) ) ) )))))))))))))))))))))
William J. Beaty SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
billb@eskimo.com www.eskimo.com/~billb
EE/programmer/sci-exhibits science projects, tesla, weird science
Seattle, WA 206-781-3320 freenrg-L taoshum-L vortex-L webhead-L