Back when valves (tubes) were the prevailing technology in consumer electronics, Heathkits were popular due to their reliability and resourcefulness, being a sort of middle-ground between skilled homebrew and commercial products; one such example is their capacitance tester, the Capaci-Tester, released in 1959.
The device tests capacitors for short circuits, open circuits, and low equivalent resistance, doing so by looking at the loading the device under test places on a 19 MHz oscillator, with a magic eye tube serving as both display and oscillator.
It lacks a rectifier, instead running on AC from a transformer, making it an excellent example of making do with what one has available.
The tester cannot measure the capacitance of capacitors, but the writer assumes that Scherrer would construct a bridged for that.
It uses 540 V AC for the magic eye tube, and 55 V AC for the test circuit.
Scherrer found it to be in good condition when he tested it, although he did remove a capacitor from one of the mains input lines to the chassis, and the device runs well.
