[SadisticSid]

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 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.

[Turnsky]

better than wearing a birthday suit..

one for the mythbusters, methinks

[karajorma]

And so a new superhero is born!

[Ford Prefect]

Originally posted by Turnsky
one for the mythbusters, methinks

It's a BBC article, though. They're not in the habit of reporting urban legends.

[achtung]

 Wow, I wanna do that.

[IceFire]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect

It's a BBC article, though. They're not in the habit of reporting urban legends.

WOW! Hilarious!

I didn't know it was from BBC...I assumed it was a tall tale!

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]You can carry a significant amount of static on you without realising it. You don't even need to be wearing nylon or God forbid, a shellsuit.

If you want to see how easy it is to create static take your run of the mill steel frying pan with a wooden/plastic handle and put it on a tescos bag (polythene shopping bag). Turn the frying pan on the bag 20 or 30 times and bring something metal into contact with it.
[/color]

[Prophet]

Has anyone been killed because of static electricity? I mean, isn't it possible that the charge, when relased, could cause something unpredictable? In theory, at least...

[Ford Prefect]

Yep, it's called lightning.

[Prophet]

Oh right... Thats electricity too, isn't it?

That's not what I meant... Smaller scale, indoors maybe?

[Ford Prefect]

I dunno. But through all the ages of human existence, I would be willing to bet that if it can happen, it did.

[Descenterace]

Spontaneous combustion theories, anyone?

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Early pacemakers were notoriously sensitive, I'd think that maybe one or two were misfired due to excessive static.

That's an educated guess though so I couldn't say for certain. It is worth noting that mobile phones can cause unpredictable behaviour with pacemakers and internal cardiac defibs. so a hefty amount of static could cause harm.
[/color]

[Charismatic]

Lightning man!

[Grey Wolf]

You can't use Lightning Lad though. That was already taken.

[Sandwich]

Get Super Static in here... STAT! (pun intended)

[SadisticSid]

I wonder what he could have been doing to generate so much static... having a fully-clothed orgy in a room filled with balloons? Trying to invent a tesla coil? Maybe he's a cruel swine who likes to give people those annoying little jolts like the ones you get from old CRT screens.

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect

It's a BBC article, though. They're not in the habit of reporting urban legends.

it's also being reported from australia.. nuff said

[Wild Fragaria]

Originally posted by Prophet
Has anyone been killed because of static electricity? I mean, isn't it possible that the charge, when relased, could cause something unpredictable? In theory, at least...

Oh yeah, a number of people almost got killed by static (build-up from clothes and motions) at the gas stations in the States every year during the winter season.  Like Maeglamor has pointed out, most people just do not realize how much static ones could carry around them.   It's very dangerous when you're near by or handling flammable material, such as filling up gas at the gas station.

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Turnsky


it's also being reported from australia.. nuff said

Yeah - the guy was on the radio laughing about it. Pretty awesome