Howard, I remember the days of a control room where I used to work back around 1970. Though I didn't work in the Ctrl Rm I had frequent occasion to visit it. From your excellent description I can picture the whole sequence of events. I laughed so hard that you started my day beautifully. In fact I called my wife to read your email because I couldn't read aloud from laughing so hard. She doesn't know what an electrolytic is, but she got a good laugh from the whole story. She worked there also. It's great to reminisce once in a while. Preserve the great memory's. Tom Howard Winter wrote: On 12/23/05, Spehro Pefhany wrote: > At 11:00 AM 12/23/2005 -0500, you wrote: > > > > > > > > > In my experience, ordinary electrolytics aren't as dramatic as > > > tantalums when they go. The vent just opens and they sneeze out the > > > electrolyte. A fizzle, not a bang. > > > > > >Yeah, they've improved them.. They used to throw aluminum case and guts all > >over the place if properly abused. > > I think only large ones have a vent- the small ones will probably still > blow up good. In the 70's we had a computer room (remember them? :-) which had automatic CO2 extinguishing equipment, and one night a large capacitor (think bean-can size) exploded, and took out the terminal rack it was powering, frightening the operators, and creating a small cloud of smoke. Everyone left the room except the shift leader who rang the operations manager to tell him bout it. A minute into the conversation it went something like: "What's that bell ringing?" "I've no idea, perhaps..." "WHOOOOOOOOSH! Thump, Crash!" The bell was the fire system saying that it had detected smoke and was about to trip the extinguishing system. The Whoosh was the room being filled with CO2 *really* fast, the thump and crash was the operator dropping the phone, vaulting the handrail that divided off the ramp from the raised floor down to the door, plus opening the door with his body's momentum! :-) There was no actual fire, just the smoke from the demised cap, but apparently the sprayed electrolyte and can shrapnel was enough to write off the 6U-high PSU and some of the equipment above it, so that plus the lost computer time and refilling 8 CO2 tanks made it a very expensive capacitor! Those were the days... Merry Christmas! Howard Winter St.Albans, England -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist --------------------------------- Yahoo! for Good - Make a difference this year. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist