Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!fox!portal!cup.portal.com!mmm
From: mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: old part identification
Message-ID: <25195@cup.portal.com>
Date: 20 Dec 89 01:58:40 GMT
References: <983@ux.acss.umn.edu>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 6

Sounds just like a selenium rectifier.  To confirm, heat up one of the plates
with a soldering iron.  If it makes a sickly sweet sort of smell, that's
selenium.  (Selenium is poisonous, so you might not want to do this;  all I
know is I've done it, and it hasn't hurt m-m-m-e-m-e-m-e-e-e-e.)

[I tried to mail this, but mail bounced it back to me.]