[R-390] Orange Drop question

[Bill Hawkins]

Well, I'm torn. Should I be reassuring and say that it is the right
hand lead from the printed side and let those who worry about this
sleep well at night, when I know that the labelling equipment could
mark it either way?

Or should I use that quote about fly specks and pepper?

Consider the construction of a plastic cap. A four layer ribbon is made
up of a really thin strip of plastic, a strip of rally thin aluminum
offset to stick out on the north side, another strip of plastic film
centered over the other one, and a strip of aluminum foil that is
offset to stick out on the south side. The ribbon could be 20 feet long
for a 0.01 mfd cap or 200 feet for a 0.1 mfd bypass. Wind up the ribbon,
mash leads into the foil sticking out at each end, dip it in Day-Glo
orange goop, send it to the label machine, and the result is a capacitor.

Take that orange drop and wrap foil around the outside, taking care not
to short it to the leads. Measure the capacity between the added foil
and either lead. You will not be able to measure any difference with
any practical instrument. The added foil is perhaps 0.2 feet long. It
is separated from the outer foil by 10 times the thickness of the plastic
film. This adds up to about 0.01% of the capacity of the thing you are
using for a bypass or coupling capacitor.

Only a person who can hear the difference between silver and copper leads
on a component should worry about grounding the outside foil. If one is
incurably obsessive about this kind of thing, it would be best to build
mu-metal shields for all of the parts. One drawback is that the chassis
must also be mu-metal to establish a "ground" reference for magnetic
fields as well as electric.

Regards,
Bill Hawkins