23 Apr 2004, 02:05, Joe Paulson (1:150/115), wrote to All:

Hi Joe.

 JP>    While dumpster diving ,I came across a plastic coated #18 wire
 JP> with a series of metallic switches? ,about 2 1/2 " by 1/2 ",along
 JP> the wire about 1 foot apart.The devices were encased in a 
 JP> transparent soft plastic pouch.I checked for capacitance by first 
 JP> measuring the resistance ( was an open circuit) ,then reversing the 
 JP> leads and see id I got a kick. Got nothing.
 JP>   Anyone have an idea what these things were?

The placement of those "switches" makes me think of the wire that
is used in electric blankets, but the 'wire' itself would not be copper. 
Electric blankets DO have thermal switches every foot or so, the cheaper
ones have fewer.

 JP> 50,000 ohm resistor
 JP> A while back,someone came across a glass enclosed resistor 
 JP> labeled 50,00 megohms and wondered where it was used.It's used in 
 JP> Analytical Chemistry in a Mass Spectrometer.Positively charged ions 
 JP> from molecules and fragments are sorted by magnetic and electric 
 JP> fields into masses of a singular Molecular weight and strike an 
 JP> electrode to produce a voltage.The voltage draw electrons from ground 
 JP> through a high value resistor to produce a microvolt voltages that 
 JP> are amplified by op amps to as high as 5 volts for recording and 
 JP> interpretation.

That was me, and I can't even remember HOW far back that was!  Wow!

I found that 50,000 MegOhm glass encapsulated item in the 'trash can' of an
Army unit involved in instrument calibration way back in 1968.  

Thanks for the reply and a GREAT memory!  One more puzzle I can now clear
from my remaining brain cells...  :-))


     Thanks, M.

--- Msged/386 TE 06 (pre)