[ARC5] Re: [Milsurplus] Solder Woes

[Mike Hanz]

Hue,

What a great segue!  The earliest printed record of these whisker 
problems comes from an ARC employee just after the war!  I spent a 
fascinating evening with a NASA employee who stopped by my QTH in 
central Virginia recently on his way to a conference in Richmond, going 
over his samples of cadmium and tin whisker growth.  As I begin 
unpacking the storage boxes, I'm going to be more aware of what they 
look like.  It helps to have a miniature flashlight to show up the crystals.

See http://aafradio.org/sidebar/1946-Cobb-Cadmium-whiskers-complete.pdf

Hue Miller wrote:

>>during the second world war, similar whiskers would
>>short the cadmium tuning capacitors in aircraft radios.
>>
>
>They did????? Which radios?
>The tin whiskers developed in that short a time frame, the
>design life - service life - or length of the war???
>
>>A decade later,
>>tin-based relays in AT&T telephone switching centres 
>>were found to cause
>>shorts.
>>
>I have not seen any telephone relay including the later 
>electromechanical 1A-ESS type that had gaps small enuff to be 
>bridged by whiskers.
>Whence come these "facts", i wonder?   
>-Hue Miller
>