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|  #1 Posted on 17.9.05 0314.19
Reposted on: 17.9.12 0314.50 | http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4252692.stm
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.
40,000 volts in just static electricity? That's crazy talk. | Promote this thread! |             | TalusMZ
Tocino
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| #2 Posted on 17.9.05 1934.08
Reposted on: 17.9.12 1935.43 | While it is sort of ridiculous that he managed to accumulate 40k volts without discharging them at some point, conceivably you could have that much charge in you without any real harm, because what kills you is the movement of the electricity (the current, I think). In his case, the electricity wasn't moving, hence static.
It still is something that seems like it wouldn't happen outside of a comic book, but just trying add some potential truth to the matter. | AWArulz
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| #3 Posted on 17.9.05 2114.04
Reposted on: 17.9.12 2114.17 | There's no doubt you can have 40K volts of static electricity built up in you. I have personally discharged over 20K many times. (we have an instanteous meter on our bench that records your discharge.) But burning a carpet?
I find it hard to believe that he could have generated that much current?
SNOPES?
Nope, it's not there. But a search for Frank shows several versions. It just REEKS of urban legend
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16628269-29277,00.html
http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/Forum/post.asp?TOPIC_ID=10784&method=TopicQuote
Mainstream paper report - a little more believable
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16627614%255E2862,00.html
well, just goes to show you - wear natural fibers
| Cerebus
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| #4 Posted on 18.9.05 2241.06
Reposted on: 18.9.12 2242.01 | | How the hell did he open doors? Doors have metal door knobs and with that much juice going through him, he's gonna have his hair standing up ind it's gonna be on fire. | AWArulz
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| #5 Posted on 19.9.05 0834.23
Reposted on: 19.9.12 0834.30 | Originally posted by Cerebus
How the hell did he open doors? Doors have metal door knobs and with that much juice going through him, he's gonna have his hair standing up ind it's gonna be on fire.
It's a public building, so it was probably a revolving. He may have never touched anything except the glass. And that is a good generator for Static Electricity as well. The revolvers seem to increase it, although I can't put any theory to it to say why.
| Matt Tracker
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| #6 Posted on 19.9.05 1252.44
Reposted on: 19.9.12 1253.48 | | At least, it's not 1.21 "jigga-watts." | Battlezone
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| #7 Posted on 19.9.05 1658.21
Reposted on: 19.9.12 1658.38 | | Did he get the job? | | ALL ORIGINAL POSTS IN THIS THREAD ARE NOW AVAILABLE |
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