What is this component

[Alex Eisenhut]

Kind of baffling. The body is hard plastic, it's 1cm long. It appears like it's a single wire embedded in the body, and something cut that notch out, ie that notch doesn't look like it was part of the molding of the plastic.

It measures open circuit, it doesn't change with a magnet. Not a reed relay. Measures as "not a part" on my RLC meter. All that is visible in the notch is the face of the cut wire.

As a spark gap it would suck since there's no pointy bits. As a coherer it would suck because there's no place for the filings...

I found it in a bag of resistors and junk, but this part might not even be an electronic component?

[T3sl4co1l]

Might suck, but spark gap is what comes to mind.  Assuming the leads are visible in the notch.

I mean, being that it's subject to atmospheric variation, it's already a factor of two out of spec, but if that's enough, that'll do.

Tim

[Don Hills]

What's your DMM say?

It's a DMM. It doesn't say anything. Except maybe "beep", but it didn't even do that for this component.
But seriously, read the OP again. 

[Mr. Scram]

Maybe it's supposed to support another part.

[dexters_lab]

take it to your dentist and see if they will xray it for you

[Gyro]

Yes, I'd go with spark gap too. You say that the gap has been cut out of the molding, that's fairly typical of a 'sawn' spark gap - easy to manufacture for a range of breakdown voltages.

CRT base component protection, or similar, comes to mind.

[Alex Eisenhut]

Yes, I'd go with spark gap too. You say that the gap has been cut out of the molding, that's fairly typical of a 'sawn' spark gap - easy to manufacture for a range of breakdown voltages.

CRT base component protection, or similar, comes to mind.

Thanks to all, and that makes sense. I remember my first job they were designing a driver and power supply for a specific CRT for the ultrasonic testing machine I was working on.
One day the parts guy gave me a big box of crap and said "Hey I know you like crap" and there we are!

[tszaboo]

Maybe it is a reed switch.

[Fraser]

My first thought was an open to atmosphere HV Spark Gap as others have suggested. Can the ends of the wires be seen either side of the cut ? If so, it is basically a 'calibrated' spark gap that flashes over at some rough voltage depending upon atmospheric conditions. It's application would likely be pretty undemanding on accuracy, like spark gaps made from 'saw tooth' PCB traces in power supplies. A CRT driver circuit would be a likely application.

Fraser

[Fraser]

A couple of TV CRT 'open to air' type spark gaps

Fraser