Power-dressing man leaves trail of destruction
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LumenHound
Flashlight Enthusiast
I recall reading about something similar 10 or 15 years ago and back then we filed it under the "unknown". Last time it was cotton, this time it's ???
Still, let's have a proper investigation of all the data before we come to mystery solutions
Still, let's have a proper investigation of all the data before we come to mystery solutions
The article is poorly written and filled with technical inaccuracies. I don't believe it for a second.
I've wired up a flyback transformer from a PC monitor to produce a continuous HV arc. I was probably generating 40KV or more (1+ inch arcs), but it was continuous instead of intermittent like a static charge. I did manage to light a candle with it, but it took a good 10 seconds of the candle wick being exposed to the arc before it lit.
Also, in high scool, we got to play with a Van De Graff generator for an entire period. That was easily producing 40KV static charges - we were zapping each other with 1 and 2" sparks. We were wearing clothes made of a variety of different textiles, including synthetics, and none of us magically burst into flames. I'm sure the VDG generator was producing more spark energy than what allegedly happening with this guy, yet we were in no danger.
I've wired up a flyback transformer from a PC monitor to produce a continuous HV arc. I was probably generating 40KV or more (1+ inch arcs), but it was continuous instead of intermittent like a static charge. I did manage to light a candle with it, but it took a good 10 seconds of the candle wick being exposed to the arc before it lit.
Also, in high scool, we got to play with a Van De Graff generator for an entire period. That was easily producing 40KV static charges - we were zapping each other with 1 and 2" sparks. We were wearing clothes made of a variety of different textiles, including synthetics, and none of us magically burst into flames. I'm sure the VDG generator was producing more spark energy than what allegedly happening with this guy, yet we were in no danger.
jtr1962
Flashaholic
This was my favorite part of the article:
That basically ends any credibility of the rest of the article for me.
BB
Flashlight Enthusiast
Plus the article had the guy in [size=-1]Warrnambool, which appears to be a port town... Probably too much humidity to even cause more than a mild static shock.
Desert towns like Las Vegas, with heavy use of Air Conditioning, and places like Alberta Canada, very dry and cold winters with lots of interior heating--are great places for static electricity problems around electronic equipment...
Never started a fire with a Van de Graft generator event against a piece of tissue--let alone a carpet.
-Bill
[/size]
Desert towns like Las Vegas, with heavy use of Air Conditioning, and places like Alberta Canada, very dry and cold winters with lots of interior heating--are great places for static electricity problems around electronic equipment...
Never started a fire with a Van de Graft generator event against a piece of tissue--let alone a carpet.
-Bill
[/size]
yuandrew
Flashlight Enthusiast
Sounds too good to be true, eh?
Somewhere in my parts box, I have a pretty normal looking Piezo ignitor for a gas grill that seems to be unusually powerful. The spark can sometimes exceed half an inch and if you click it in a dark room and watch closely, you can see this ball lightning effect comming out of the ignitor's positive tip. Still, with the exception below, I haven't caught any paper or carpet on fire just by sparking it. Note, do not attempt what I did below.
Just don't spray butane into a soda bottle cap (I got it to stay in there as a liquid) then start clicking the piezo ignitor nearby. By the time I got the ignitor out, enough butane had boiled away to form a "cloud" across the top of my desk and some of it had also drifted off the edge and was pooling on the floor. Well, I had my own experience of a "flashback" fire where the flames traveled up the trail of vapors back to it's source. The 'click' of the ignitor was immediately followed by the FWOOLMP! of the gas igniting and in a split second, it had flashed across the top of my desk from the from the point of ignition to ignite the the bottle cap of fuel then followed down the edge to ignite the pool the floor. It also melted a few plastic bags of LEDs on top of my desk and caught an Air Fern (one of those "plants" that don't need any sunlight or water but in reality it is actually dried sea weed dyed green) that I kept on top of my desk on fire. I had enough time to grab the plant and bring it to the bathroom where I could run water over it. I got it out but 1/4 of it was already burned up. I went back to my room to make sure that nothing else was on fire. Other than the melted carpet, scorched air fern and a few peices of paper as well as a melted bag of LEDs and what was left of the bottle cap after the gas burned out, nothing else was damaged badly. Still, there was some smoke from the burned air fern drifting around in my room. Those smell very bad when burned. (me putting a fan up by the window to get rid of the smoke)
Somewhere in my parts box, I have a pretty normal looking Piezo ignitor for a gas grill that seems to be unusually powerful. The spark can sometimes exceed half an inch and if you click it in a dark room and watch closely, you can see this ball lightning effect comming out of the ignitor's positive tip. Still, with the exception below, I haven't caught any paper or carpet on fire just by sparking it. Note, do not attempt what I did below.
Just don't spray butane into a soda bottle cap (I got it to stay in there as a liquid) then start clicking the piezo ignitor nearby. By the time I got the ignitor out, enough butane had boiled away to form a "cloud" across the top of my desk and some of it had also drifted off the edge and was pooling on the floor. Well, I had my own experience of a "flashback" fire where the flames traveled up the trail of vapors back to it's source. The 'click' of the ignitor was immediately followed by the FWOOLMP! of the gas igniting and in a split second, it had flashed across the top of my desk from the from the point of ignition to ignite the the bottle cap of fuel then followed down the edge to ignite the pool the floor. It also melted a few plastic bags of LEDs on top of my desk and caught an Air Fern (one of those "plants" that don't need any sunlight or water but in reality it is actually dried sea weed dyed green) that I kept on top of my desk on fire. I had enough time to grab the plant and bring it to the bathroom where I could run water over it. I got it out but 1/4 of it was already burned up. I went back to my room to make sure that nothing else was on fire. Other than the melted carpet, scorched air fern and a few peices of paper as well as a melted bag of LEDs and what was left of the bottle cap after the gas burned out, nothing else was damaged badly. Still, there was some smoke from the burned air fern drifting around in my room. Those smell very bad when burned. (me putting a fan up by the window to get rid of the smoke)
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270winchester
Flashlight Enthusiast
mattheww50
Flashlight Enthusiast
Breakdown for air is about 2000V/mm, so each inch of spark is roughly 50,000 volts (varies somewhat with humidity and atmospheric pressure). You can get Corona discharge long before you see sparks or flashover if the E field is high enough. St. Elmo's fire is a Corona discharge.
It isn't all that hard to develop 40Kv of static, however the energy involved is tiny without a storage device like a leyden jar. Absent the large Capacitor unless the material to be ignited is about the 'flash' point, it won't be ignited. A Piezo Electric igniter converts a fair chunk of mechanical energy into Electrical Energy. IT isn't an electrostatic discharge. Getting Zapped by one hurts a lot more than an electrostatic charge because there is a lot more energy involved, and the flash point for methane, butane and propane is well below room temperature, so these devices are quite effective for lighting burners on gas stoves, BBQ's and butane lighters.
The chances of generating enough energy via static electricity from walking around to burn carpets, or melt.burn plastic or anything except exceptionally flamable chemicals is just about zero. If it wasn't people would be routinely be killed by such discharges. Only takes about 1 joule (1 watt-second) applied in the right place and at the right time cause a fatal heart arhythmias. Most ESD involves orders of magnitude less than 1 joule. It takes an ESD the size of a lightning strike to kill someone!
However it is pretty easy to have sufficient static charge on your body to punch right through the gate on an MOS device, destroying it. A microscopic hole in the insulated gate kills an MOS device. Microjoules will do it easily.
Many devices are protected by Zener diodes, and usually you have to work on them on a grounded worked area, wearing a grounding strap on your wrist. The Insulation on the gate is so thin that it only takes a few hundred volts to punch a hole in it!
Most consumer electronics rated for 20kv ESD at the customer interface (control panel buttons/switches), but often much less elsewhere (battery compartment, viewfinder etc)...
It isn't all that hard to develop 40Kv of static, however the energy involved is tiny without a storage device like a leyden jar. Absent the large Capacitor unless the material to be ignited is about the 'flash' point, it won't be ignited. A Piezo Electric igniter converts a fair chunk of mechanical energy into Electrical Energy. IT isn't an electrostatic discharge. Getting Zapped by one hurts a lot more than an electrostatic charge because there is a lot more energy involved, and the flash point for methane, butane and propane is well below room temperature, so these devices are quite effective for lighting burners on gas stoves, BBQ's and butane lighters.
The chances of generating enough energy via static electricity from walking around to burn carpets, or melt.burn plastic or anything except exceptionally flamable chemicals is just about zero. If it wasn't people would be routinely be killed by such discharges. Only takes about 1 joule (1 watt-second) applied in the right place and at the right time cause a fatal heart arhythmias. Most ESD involves orders of magnitude less than 1 joule. It takes an ESD the size of a lightning strike to kill someone!
However it is pretty easy to have sufficient static charge on your body to punch right through the gate on an MOS device, destroying it. A microscopic hole in the insulated gate kills an MOS device. Microjoules will do it easily.
Many devices are protected by Zener diodes, and usually you have to work on them on a grounded worked area, wearing a grounding strap on your wrist. The Insulation on the gate is so thin that it only takes a few hundred volts to punch a hole in it!
Most consumer electronics rated for 20kv ESD at the customer interface (control panel buttons/switches), but often much less elsewhere (battery compartment, viewfinder etc)...
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