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holy poop balls
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View this Thread in Original format
| Orbax |
SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.
Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woolen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was oblivious to the growing electrical current that was building up as his clothes rubbed together.
When he walked into a building in the country town of Warrnambool in the southern state of Victoria Thursday, the electrical charge ignited the carpet.
"It sounded almost like a firecracker," Clewer told Australian radio Friday.
"Within about five minutes, the carpet started to erupt."
Employees, unsure of the cause of the mysterious burning smell, telephoned firefighters who evacuated the building.
"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.
Firefighters cut electricity to the building thinking the burns might have been caused by a power surge.
Clewer, who after leaving the building discovered he had scorched a piece of plastic on the floor of his car, returned to seek help from the firefighters.
"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.
"I've been firefighting for over 35 years and I've never come across anything like this," he said.
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.
David Gosden, a senior lecturer in electrical engineering at Sydney University, told Reuters that for a static electricity charge to ignite a carpet, conditions had to be perfect.
"Static electricity is a similar mechanism to lightning, where you have clouds rubbing together and then a spark generated by very dry air above them," said Gosden.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsa...CTRICITY-DC.XML |
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| jonze234 |
| thats ing hilarious. if he had known about it he could have shocked the hell out of the people at work by touching them. "hey debbie, you bitch. feel my wrath. *zap* *insert evil laugh*" |
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| dj_bas |
hahaha debbie...such a funny name
do it! next week i will be wearing wool & nylon the whole day... |
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| Mebot |
| quote: | Originally posted by Orbax
"We tested his clothes with a static electricity field meter and measured a current of 40,000 volts, which is one step shy of spontaneous combustion, where his clothes would have self-ignited," Barton said.and then a spark generated by very dry air above them," said Gosden.
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what is the next step?
40,001 volts? |
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| Orbax |
| maybe literally the next step? |
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| dj_bas |
| quote: | Originally posted by Orbax
maybe literally the next step? |
like..."NOOOOO DON"T MOVE!!!"
"huh?" *step* *spontaneously combust* |
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| Vlad |
OMG!!!
If that was me, I would have SOOOOOOOOOO been Raiden!!!
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| Slylee |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_bas
hahaha debbie...such a funny name
do it! next week i will be wearing wool & nylon the whole day... |
debbie is such an 80's name. but i'm probably just saying that cuz of debbie gibson. lol
oh yea, what about tiffany?
:stongue: |
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| Vlad |
| quote: | Originally posted by dj_bas
hahaha debbie...such a funny name
do it! next week i will be wearing wool & nylon the whole day... |
Make sure you go to sleep with it on. |
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| jonze234 |
| i wonder what kind of carpet it was. probably that cheap stuff that all the office buildings use. |
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| Floorfiller |
| quote: | Originally posted by Slylee
debbie is such an 80's name. but i'm probably just saying that cuz of debbie gibson. lol
oh yea, what about tiffany?
:stongue: |
yeah but Deb is a fat girls name...tiffany is a hot girls name |
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