OK, Once again I am having a little trouble understanding some of my equipment.
I recently purchased a Cenco disectable capacitor which consists of an outer aluminum can (no top), a plastic (beaker) which fits nicely inside, and an inner aluminum can which has a conducting post attached.
I charge it up with a Wimshurst Generator so that the outer conductor and inner conductor have opposite charges. Then disconnect the generator.
I can easily take apart the capacitor with small (<1mm) sparks to my hand. I then touch all pieces which appear to have been discharged.
Then I reassemble the combination as I did in the first place. Then I touched the two conductors together and WHAM, a huge spark (>1cm) passes from conductor to conductor.
The owner's manual suggests that the CHARGE is stored in the dielectric between the conductors but I don't understand how this could be.
If there is some sort of memory of the internal field set up in the dielectric, why does it "remember" while I take it apart but not "remember" after discharge.
Any ideas about this, no doubt, century old demonstration??