I have worked out more ideal Solo electrodes for the E-Meter — ”cans”.

The basic trouble with a single-hand electrode is that it gives a falsely higher TA which can be very alarming.

The Tone Arm range on the Meter should be between 2.0 and 3.0 for a floating needle to be valid. This is when two regulation electrodes (steel soup cans) are employed.

When you use only one electrode, holding it in the left hand if you are right-handed, the TA can read as high as 4.0 when it is actually 3.0. Also a TA at 1.7 can read as 2.5!

Single-hand electrodes are almost as old as the modern meter. An aluminum tea ball with an insulator between the screw threads served in the earliest models, an electrode leading to each half.

Two stainless steel pipe sections about an inch in diameter, separated in the middle by a rubber ring, with an electrode to each end was a single-hand electrode version which came down to modern times.

There were no further developments of any lasting value on this problem of single-hand electrodes until a few months ago.

The problem in Solo Auditing is of course that if you held electrodes in both hands you couldn’t write or work the meter at the same time. BUT a single-hand electrode gives the wrong TA even if it does give the right needle reads (which it does). To get the right TA then one must unplug the single-hand electrode and plug in the two-hand electrode. In this operation the TA can change and the wires get tangled. This commotion is of course distracting.

What I worked out was a two-can electrode that became a single-hand electrode at once.

You take 2 small juice or vegetable steel cans with their tops neatly removed. They must be the paper label, not the painted kind of course.

The size required is 2 1/8 inches diameter at the rim (that is about 54 millimeters). The length is 3 ¾ inches (which is about 95 millimeters).

You then take a piece of soft sponge or foam rubber about 3/8 inches thick (about 10 mm). You cut a circular piece of sponge rubber about 2 3/8 inches (about 60 mm). It is just slightly larger than the can diameter.

You glue this sponge or foam rubber circle to the closed end of one can but not to the other.

Snap the electrode wires into the open ends of the cans. You now have to all requirements a two-can electrode setup, with the difference that one can’s base has a rubber pad on it. Holding these one in each hand gives you the 2-can more correct TA read.

By putting the closed base of one can against the rubber pad on the other can, taking them in one hand (two fingers on each can as you hold them) you have a single-hand electrode.

In an instant you can take them in two hands and get the correct TA (adjusting the Tone Arm with a knuckle or finger tip). Taking them back in one hand and resetting the TA you again have your single-hand read.

In using this system you should change your notation to an indication of whether it is a one-hand or two-can read (to save your Case Supervisor from heart failure).

The new notation is as follows: 3.75 (1) 2.9 (2). It doesn’t mean you always use both reads. You add the brackets and a 2 or 1 to show whether it’s a double or single (2) or (1) read. At session start and at end you always give both, i.e. 3.5 (1) 2.5 (2). And at the end you give a trim check like 1.9 = 2.0 (done by unplugging the electrodes from the meter for an instant and putting the needle at set and reading what the TA is). It should be 2.0 but often has drifted to 1.9 or 2.1. That verifies all reads.

A standard can is about 2 ¾ inches (69 mm) diameter by about 4 ½ or 5 inches (114 mm or 127 mm) long.

Steel soup or vegetable cans, unpainted, tops cleanly removed, label and glue washed off, tin plated or not, have been standard for many years. It is with these that calibration has been done.

It is amusing that I had to work hard on electrodes to get the first meters to work at all. Everything got tried. Steel rods, aluminum (aluminium) tea balls, metal pads, metal straps, you name it. The only one that works consistently is the good old common kitchen variety soup can. It’s amusing to see efforts to „improve our electrodes”. Other versions have all been tried and failed and every few years we have to have a soup can revival campaign to get people back to standard reads.

The smaller juice can as described for the single-hand electrode does not give the exact read as the standard cans when used as a two-can electrode. So the smaller can shouldn’t be used by Examiners. You can check the difference if you like between these two can sizes.

But the standard cans are too big as a one-hand to be held comfortably in most people’s left hand. The difference is not great enough to worry anyone in normal auditing.

People with small hands or children can’t cope at all with a standard can.

The size given for the single-hand (2 1/8” x 3 ¾”) is more suitable for them.

For very little children, two Kodak 35 mm unpainted casette cans from any photo shop will serve admirably.

These two 35 mm cassettes fixed with a rubber pad on the bottom of one as described for the single-hand electrode above will serve a child as a one-hand electrode.

The whole trick in preparing two separate cans to be held as a single-hand is to make sure that when you put the bottoms together they don’t short. They can cause a „rock slam” or a sudden fall if the metal of the cans touch. Thus the glued-on rubber pad must be a bit bigger than the can diameter and thick enough so it doesn’t press through.

Old setups were bolted together and couldn’t be separated easily for two-can reads. These two cans are loose from each other.

A drawing of the setup done by Richard Gorman is illustrative.

Important note: The smaller cans can give a falsely low TA read being small. If you get such a read, have two large standard cans handy to snap onto the leads and check. Will save heart failure at seeing 1.7 for two-can read!