Posted on 09/16/2005 12:45:55 PM PDT by rattrap
Man's static jacket sparks alert An Australian man built up so much static electricity in his clothes as he walked that he burned carpets, melted plastic and sparked a mass evacuation. Frank Clewer, of the western Victorian city of Warrnambool, was wearing a synthetic nylon jacket and a woollen shirt when he went for a job interview.
As he walked into the building, the carpet ignited from the 40,000 volts of static electricity that had built up.
"It sounded almost like a firecracker or something like that," he said.
"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt," he told Australian radio.
Considerable current
Perplexed firemen evacuated the building and cut its electricity supply, thinking the burns could have been caused by a power surge.
"There were several scorch marks in the carpet, and we could hear a cracking noise - a bit like a whip - both inside and outside the building," said fire official Henry Barton.
Mr Clewer said that after leaving the building, he scorched a piece of plastic in his car.
His clothes were measured by firemen as carrying a current of 40,000 volts, the Reuters news agency quoted Mr Barton as saying.
The fire official added that the charge was close to being high enough to cause the items to spontaneously combust.
"I've been firefighting for over 35 years and I've never come across anything like this," he said.
Bookmarking for the zot pictures.
This is VERY hard to believe: "Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction" http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050916/od_nm/australia_electricity_dc;_ylt=A9FJqaXrICtDa.8AUAGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-
Nylon and wool together? This man's sense of fashion is absolutely shocking.
Is this guy a Muslim?
But did he get the job?
Plays with sparks ping.
From your link, "Firefighters took possession of Clewer's jacket and stored it in the courtyard of the fire station, where it continued to give off a strong electrical current."
Energy crisis solved!
Nice Photo:
Shopping list
1. new keyboard
2. monitor cleaner
3. paper towels.
Thanks for messing up my desk :) LMAO
Actually scientists are well aware the potential of static electricity it's extremely high amounts of energy with little work, the only problem is it's chaotic, and any attempts to controll it either yeild little energy or are really dangerous.
Now that is a ZOT!
Just the kind of dude you want working in the server room,
not.
I used to run a datacenter on a second (wood) floor with
linoleum tile. We had frequent unexplained computer halts.
One day I noticed one happen when I touched a peripheral.
Experiments proved it was static electricity. Even
discharging into large metal objects not connected to
the rack would trigger halts.
We ended up running a ground braid up from the foundation
and double-grounding everything in the room, even the
trash cans.
LOL for Ol' Sparky!
When I took a static damage protection seminar many years ago, I seem to remember that 40,000 volts of static electricity was not really that much. Enough to make you jump if someone touched your ear, but definitely not enough to cause carpets to catch fire.
Maybe the guy is an undiscovered X-man.
Shocking? You should try shaking hands with him! Bet he made a great first impression on his interviewers... '-)
I didn't do it!
I worked my way through college as a bellman at a hotel. The combination of excessively dry winter air, poly/wool uniforms, cotton poly gloves, nylon carpeting and brass bellcarts built up a similar type charge. I can still remember bright blue bolts shooting off my fingers as I went to touch the elevator button and the subsequent whisp of smoke.
Owl_Eagle
(If what I just wrote makes you sad or angry,
I suspect this guy won't be working in any fireworks factories anytime soon.
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