Someone on ebay who is selling Sprague Black Beauty caps said that his were
the red letter caps and not the leaky yellow letter ones.

I happen to have a couple of the yellow ones and they do leak like hell.

If they were the 1950s Telecap BB then this one would have oil in it (600V
and over had oil). This is a 1000V cap.that leaks real bad at 150V.

I broke it open and no oil and no mylar, only paper and foil.

I searched through a collection of old Sprague catalogs and in 1973 they
made a 155P metallized paper cap and the writing in the picture matches the
yellow writing on the cap.

These black moulded Spragues with yellow writing are NOT Difilm Black
Beauties (part number 160P). They are only cheap paper caps manufactured
for only a few years.

They also made a 116P paper only cap at some time, but I haven't found a
picture of it yet.

Just in case you were interested, Mark

How about the Black Cats. Are they any good?

truegridtz wrote:

Someone on ebay who is selling Sprague Black Beauty caps said that his were
the red letter caps and not the leaky yellow letter ones.

I happen to have a couple of the yellow ones and they do leak like hell.

If they were the 1950s Telecap BB then this one would have oil in it (600V
and over had oil). This is a 1000V cap.that leaks real bad at 150V.

I broke it open and no oil and no mylar, only paper and foil.

I searched through a collection of old Sprague catalogs and in 1973 they
made a 155P metallized paper cap and the writing in the picture matches the
yellow writing on the cap.

These black moulded Spragues with yellow writing are NOT Difilm Black
Beauties (part number 160P). They are only cheap paper caps manufactured
for only a few years.

They also made a 116P paper only cap at some time, but I haven't found a
picture of it yet.

Just in case you were interested, Mark

"scottp" wrote in message
...
How about the Black Cats. Are they any good?

Hey Scott, They are essentially the same type of cap. This 1980 CDE
catalog here has a page for them. The Sprague BB was gone from their
catalog by 1975.

I have a few Blackcats that I tested a few days ago. They have a slight bit
of leakage: about .3uA (that's 3/10 of a micro amp) at rated voltage. This
isn't
much, but a good plastic cap won't have any detectable leakage at twice
rated voltage.

The BB had less leakage on the ones that leaked a little (under .2uA) and
some of them didn't leak at all.

I only have a few, but I think at this point that I will sacrifice one in
order to see if the paper film is as thick as the Sprague.

Sellers on ebay seem to call every black molded cap a Black Beauty.

I will post the results after I break one open later today, unless I have
second thoughts.

http://store.tubedepot.com/vinoip.html

This is a link to a page with very affordable paper caps.

Compare prices with the following.

http://www.vacuumtube.com/capacito.htm

Why use a blackcat when you can use a Vit-Q? Just a thought. Mark



truegridtz wrote:

Someone on ebay who is selling Sprague Black Beauty caps said that his
were
the red letter caps and not the leaky yellow letter ones.

I happen to have a couple of the yellow ones and they do leak like hell.

If they were the 1950s Telecap BB then this one would have oil in it
(600V
and over had oil). This is a 1000V cap.that leaks real bad at 150V.

I broke it open and no oil and no mylar, only paper and foil.

I searched through a collection of old Sprague catalogs and in 1973 they
made a 155P metallized paper cap and the writing in the picture matches
the
yellow writing on the cap.

These black moulded Spragues with yellow writing are NOT Difilm Black
Beauties (part number 160P). They are only cheap paper caps manufactured
for only a few years.

They also made a 116P paper only cap at some time, but I haven't found a
picture of it yet.

Just in case you were interested, Mark

The .33/600V Black Cat was carefully crushed in a vise and then accurately
cut open with a dull Xacto.

This Blackcat doesn't have near as much paper as the Black Beauty. The BB
is obviously brown due to the thick paper. The Blackcat is comparatively
translucent indicating that the mylar film is the predominate dielectric.

Therefore, the black cat will probably not send the panties flying up onto
the stage like the nittygritty getdown and dirty sound of the Black Beauty.

This is of course the true test of a rock band.

Rock On RATS, Mark


"truegridtz" wrote in message
...

"scottp" wrote in message
...
How about the Black Cats. Are they any good?

Hey Scott, They are essentially the same type of cap. This 1980 CDE
catalog here has a page for them. The Sprague BB was gone from their
catalog by 1975.

I have a few Blackcats that I tested a few days ago. They have a slight
bit
of leakage: about .3uA (that's 3/10 of a micro amp) at rated voltage.
This
isn't
much, but a good plastic cap won't have any detectable leakage at twice
rated voltage.

The BB had less leakage on the ones that leaked a little (under .2uA) and
some of them didn't leak at all.

I only have a few, but I think at this point that I will sacrifice one in
order to see if the paper film is as thick as the Sprague.

Sellers on ebay seem to call every black molded cap a Black Beauty.

I will post the results after I break one open later today, unless I have
second thoughts.

http://store.tubedepot.com/vinoip.html

This is a link to a page with very affordable paper caps.

Compare prices with the following.

http://www.vacuumtube.com/capacito.htm

Why use a blackcat when you can use a Vit-Q? Just a thought. Mark



truegridtz wrote:

Someone on ebay who is selling Sprague Black Beauty caps said that his
were
the red letter caps and not the leaky yellow letter ones.

I happen to have a couple of the yellow ones and they do leak like
hell.

If they were the 1950s Telecap BB then this one would have oil in it
(600V
and over had oil). This is a 1000V cap.that leaks real bad at 150V.

I broke it open and no oil and no mylar, only paper and foil.

I searched through a collection of old Sprague catalogs and in 1973
they
made a 155P metallized paper cap and the writing in the picture matches
the
yellow writing on the cap.

These black moulded Spragues with yellow writing are NOT Difilm Black
Beauties (part number 160P). They are only cheap paper caps
manufactured
for only a few years.

They also made a 116P paper only cap at some time, but I haven't found
a
picture of it yet.

Just in case you were interested, Mark