Electrical hacking (was Re: [Techtalk] [OT] charging USBdevicewithout a PC)

[Almut Behrens]

On Mon, Apr 14, 2003 at 08:18:33PM -0500, Alvin Goats wrote:
> 
> Many oils have conductive materials added to them that add lubrication
> at different temperatures, in particular: carbon (in the form of
> graphite). It is generally the additives that cause the oil to be a
> problem, hence the identification of 'conductive' oils. 

thanks for the clarification. It's about what I was expecting (i.e.
that it's just the additive particles which make up the conductive
effect, not the oil that carries them -- yet I agree that it's somehow
just a matter of how one defines the term "conductive oil"...).
On the other hand I thought that maybe there's some new ingenious
invention that would allow the conductive effect to take place at a
more molecular level. In particular, I had read that silicon oils can
be chemically "crafted" to possess a wide variety of features -- so why
not have some free electrons or ions loosely attached to the molecules,
so they might serve as carriers of the electrical charge... :) 
Well, excuse my vague wording and silly ideas -- I'm not a chemist.
But thanks anyway.

Almut