23 Mar
2006
23 Mar
'06
10:54 a.m.
At 06:47 PM 3/23/06 -0500, you wrote:
On Thursday 23 March 2006 04:21 pm, Jim Beacon wrote:
Another advantage is that they won't weld the contacts together or burn
the contacts so they're used in high current applications or in
applications that have big inductive loads. I've replaced the standard
relay in my AC compressor with a large dual contact mercury wetted contact
relay. I pick up everyone of the things that I find and keep them for
applications such as this.
Joe
From: "Scott Quinn" <compoobah at
valleyimplants.com>
I remember seeing those in a book somewhere...
Not much use I can think of in computing, but in
other things quite
useful. Most obvious is gold prospecting, also used in other metalwork
(tempering bath), and in a hobby that will not be named to remove lead
that is stuck to steel.
Also vacuum pumps for home particle accelerators.
If you go back far enough, mercury was used in memories (mercury delay line
in some early British machines). It is also often used in high speed relays,
especially for teleprinter type
circuits - we had some mainframe / telegraph interfaces with mercury wetted
relays in them, in operation, until about 8 years ago
I have a mercury-wetted relay I salvaged out of something or other. Says so
right on it. :-) It also indicates that it should be used in one specific
physical orientation, too.
So the advantage of those is speed?