I do not have a dog in this fight, I am just playing the devil's advocate in the arguments.
Use of carbon arc rods for arc testing. Back in the late '80s, I used to operate carbon arc spotlights for a theater. The cabon rods were plated with copper and when they operated they cast a greenish colored light. The presence of the green light indicates to me that copper was vaporizing in the arc.
True, this was not a 100% copper electrode, but does this rule out that the electrodes the UL used were wrong?
The phosphor bronze / carbon & copper(?) combination sounds alot like the same materials used in the push and pray connections on the back of cheap switches and outlets.
The addition of carbon MIGHT be justified by assuming the presence of carbon from previous arcing events.
Larry the troublemaker.
