identification
This symbol is stenciled on the circuit board for Compaq PS2021 ATX power supplies. I spent almost half an hour on Google trying to identify it, and I haven't even gotten close. I thought it might be an old company logo, but nothing came up on that search either.
Has anyone seen this symbol before? If not, can you hazard a guess as to what it might represent?
It's an electrolytic capacitor. These are polarized, as the + sign also indicates. This is a less common symbol. Below are the more common ones, European on the left, American on the right.
Compare to the symbol for a non-polarized capacitor:
Note: I think the American symbol for a non-polarized cap is a bad one; it suggests that there is some kind of asymmetry where in reality there isn't one.
edit
From the comments it appears that the supposedly American non-polarized symbol is less common than I thought. I can only speak from my experience, and like I also said in comment, it could be that I've been looking mostly at older schematics (not the tubes, I'm not that old).
I found this schematic within a minute:
C2 might be an electrolytic (it won't be, will have a too low capacitance), but look at variable capacitor C1.
Also this page.
edit 2
Browsing through more symbols encountered also this weirdo (the one on the right):
It's a fixed current source (DIN 40700 style). With an arrow pointing to it an externally controlled current source. In this case it's a CCCS (Current Controlled Current Source), where the generated current is the controlling current divided by 500, resp. 1000, depending on the device.
Other common current source symbols include:
Controlled current sources may be indicated by:
or
Best Answer
It's not an official symbol.
Often times PCB designers will add in some of their own artwork. It appears to me that the lightning bolt was there to indicate that there is high voltage present. The clouds and island was some "artistic liberties" the PCB designer took. That kind of thing is not uncommon.