On Oct 23, 2005, at 8:52 AM, diveboss@xmission.com wrote:
The speed at which technology seems to evolve, I'm going to start working on a "D" cell cannon.
Years ago, I worked with an engineer who'd done some government work. In their lab, they had a shelf full of very large and obsolete electrolytic capacitors. These were the big oil-filled cans, with a pair of screw-on terminals at the top. So they made a cap cannon, using a steel pipe with a pair of contacts at the bottom. They'd drop the cap down the tube, like a mortar shell. The contacts would meet and they'd start charging the thing with some honking power supply they rigged up. After a while, the electrolyte would heat up, the can would explode, and kablooie. They probably spread PCBs all over Virginia with that thing.