from:  "Dictionary of Scientific and Technical Terms", McGraw-Hill.

"dielectric   A material which is an electrical insulator or in which an
electric field can be sustained with a minimum dissipation in power."

For our purposes (auto electrics), it's used to protect the metal
conductors from corrosion.  When slathered on the actual contact
surfaces, metal to metal forces will displace it; ie, you now have a metal
to metal contact which is protected from the environment.  At least this
is what's supposed to happen ...  Of course, it doesn't last forever.

Hope that helps.

//Jack

On 27 Aug 2005 at 14:06, Robert Fisher wrote:

> I'm puzzled about how people use this stuff. I put a big blob of it on a
> piece of wood and checked it with my multimeter. No conductivity on any
> scale.
>
> The dictionary defines 'dielectric' as: "A nonconductor of electricity,
> especially a substance with electrical conductivity of less than a millionth
> (10-6) of a siemens"
>
> If I'm not mistaking this and any number of past posts, folks seem to be
> using this as an aid to conductivity.
>
> I thought it was used to, say, keep yer plug boots from getting stuck, or as
> a corrosion/dirt/etc. barrier outside of a connection that in itself would
> not conduct the juice in that connection to something else.
>
> I suppose I could be misinterpreting what folks are saying about their use
> of the stuff... I also suppose that if you coated a contact with it you
> could still get conductivity where the grease was pushed aside and you had
> metal-to-metal contact, but that seems iffy.
>
> Am I missing something here?
>
> Cya
> Robert
>