On Thu, 9 Feb 2006 15:57:20 -0000, you wrote:

>>If I recall....carbon film is a better choice in high
>>voltage applications, less chance of arcing?  That
>>thought was from a design I worked on some 10 years ago,
>>where the application was high voltage RF, and the
>>guy doing the design specifically put in carbon
>
>Had that in Cockroft-Walton (sp?) multipliers for instruments in space.
>carbon resistors specified for arc-over reasons.

Probably solid-carbon though - film resistors are not good at HV, due to poor surge capability, and
spiral-cut ones can arc between turns. 
My marx generator (www.electricstuff.co.uk/marxthree.html) used to eat 10KV-rated film resistors due
to surge currents - after replacing with solid-carbon ones it's been fine.

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