Re: dielectric grease (was-Re: horn ring lube)

[Orin Eman <orin@wolfenet.com>]

> Jim wrote
> >   >>
> > I'm not an electrical engineer, or even an electrican, for that matter.  Here
> > is what I know.  Webster's New Twentieth Century Unabridged does indeed
> > define dielectric as an insulator or nonconductor.  But, the FIRST definition
> > is: from dia -, through, across, and electric : so called because it permits
> > the passage of the lines of force of an electrostatic field, but does not
> > conduct the current.  

> Websters new collegiate dictionary (my copy here) only has one:  "dia- +
> electric":  a nonconductor of direct electric current"

> I don't want to get into a war, passing of electric fields will not
> reduce "resistance", but will increase a property called permitivity

Come on now, since when has the dictionary definition of a word had
anything to do with its use in Physics, Engineering etc..

Let's look inside a switch or connector with contacts, some of wich
will make contact and some of which should not.  This is where we
use the 'dielectric' grease.  We definitely do not want it to conduct
between contact that are supposed to be open, but we DO want a connection
between contacts that are in contact.  It's quite simple, the grease is
an insulator, but gets displaced between contacts that are _supposed_
to conduct such that they are in contact and conduct.  It still acts
as an insulator between these and adjacent contacts.  It also prevents
contamination and/or corrosion of the contacts and even lubricates
them as they slide over each other.

Orin.