Bad Micas?

[jeyurkon]

I decided to disect a good modern dipped silver mica for comparison. Please excuse the poor photography.

The silver sheets have ferrules that clamp the silver sheets at both ends providing a better contact than the smash the lead against the sheets technique. The actual leads are spot welded to the ferrules.

There also appears to be a thin high quality epoxy that covers the basic assembly, then that is dipped into the protective epoxy coating.

There are no air bubbles to provide an arc path.

John