Capacitors and circuit performance

Considerable literature has appeared in the technical press during the past few years describing and analyzing the application of capacitors. Naturally, each author has treated the particular phase of the subject that best accomplished his objectives. It is felt, however, that a large majority of the potential users, and probably a good many of the actual users of capacitors, do not fully appreciate the change effected in the fundamental circuit characteristics when capacitors are applied. And the literature referred to does not seem to supply the demand for this type of information. This opinion has evolved through answering such queries as: “What should I use here, shunt or series capacitors?” “Should I put on shunt capacitors or regulators to fix up my bad voltage condition?” and “I guess a series capacitor is the thing to use here because it balances out all the inductance of the line and with that out, the voltage is bound to be good.”