think I was about 12 when I learned about carbon conductivity. I foolishly stuck a pencil into the arc of a Jacobs Ladder. Sucker must have tossed me 10 feet....
I'm with you all the way on the ignitions systems Dick. You almost have to cheat your way into generating rf issues. Unless it started out as a cheap and crappy ignition system most all the probelms people have are from failing to read and follow directions or from using old and worn out parts.
CARBON and its conductivity?
I guess a carbon lattice is not the best way to conduct electricity, 4 free electrons that will make a beautiful and strong lattice with other carbon atoms, hence the strength of the carbon to carbon links.
To be a good conductor we need free electrons.
The principle behind RFI shielding (Radio frequency Interference) is to cancel one of the two components of the electromagnetic wave, either the electrical component or the magnetic one.
Maxwell depicted this in the Electromagnetic theory. Faraday applied this principle to shield from the electric field.
There will be not electric components inside a Faraday cage; which by the way is the principle behind the RF shielding.
So the best shielding materials are typically those with free electrons that is metals; cooper, silver, gold, aluminium, etc. Those are the ones we want to cancel the electric component of any RFI.
New alloys are also used; however still need to have free electrons to allow good conductivity that is low resistance (ohms).
Best insulators= no free electrons, you name it: Calcium, Potassium, etc
In the middle; carbon, silicon (aka semiconductors), that is medium to high resistance, poor conductivity. As a mater of fact Carbon is the base material to manufacture resistors. In Radio Shack you still find those.
Probably an excess of carbon may will cancel or create a cage (I am reluctant to call a carbon fiebr fuselage a Faraday cage) and that may explain their "shielding" properties.
However the carbon atoms are not the best conductors, no way.