Only in Australia...

Dimitri · Super Member Joined: Nov 25, 2005 Posts: 5946

Quote::

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 an electrical charge 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.

Suzanne · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 6:22 am Post subject: Re: Only in Australia...

Yeh beans'll do that too.

Suz

Bushmaster · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:14 am Post subject: Re: Only in Australia...

Have no idea what voltage I generate when walking across my carpet in my slippers, but I sure do enjoy touching my dog, wife and grand daughter and watching them jump and cuss. Have you ever heard a dog cuss? They do...I have the teeth marks to prove it... Laughing

I can generate about a 1" arc of blue flame... Very Happy

PaulS · Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2010 8:54 pm Post subject: Re: Only in Australia...

Bushy,
Depending on the local humidity that is a lot of voltage!
It comes close to what a HEI will jump a spark... so be careful, if shake hands with someone who uses a pace-maker - it could kill him!

TRBLSHTR · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 11:26 am Post subject: Re: Only in Australia...

Well seeing as how this is the year of green and obama's green agenda-I suggest that we adopt this new wool shirt/nylon jacket "aussie"
technology to create cheaper electrical energy!I'm sure"washington dc" will buy in on it.Just might reduce our carbon footprint tax! Mad

Pumpkinslinger · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 8:03 pm Post subject: Re: Only in Australia...

Seems like I heard somehwere that it takes about 20,000 volts to arc 1 inch...

PaulS · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 8:09 pm Post subject: Re: Only in Australia...

Normal air is 3Mv per meter
approximately 3Kv per mm
25mm (1") = 75Kv (75,000 volts)

sniper · Posted: Fri Apr 23, 2010 8:45 pm Post subject: Re: Only in Australia...

As I recall, we had a discussion about static electricity in a high school science class:
The teacher had just showed us what rubbing a glass rod with a bit of woolen cloth would do, and said that the same thing could be caused by sliding across a nylon car seat on a cold morning.

One of the guys, "Jughead" Williams, (His real name was Gerald, but only our English teacher called him that.) said: "I can SEE the headline now! COUPLE ELECTROCUTED BY CAR SEAT!" Shocked