Statically Charged Man Ignites Office

Call Me Black Cloud writes "And you think your coworker with BO is annoying? In this story carried by Reuters, a man wearing a nylon jacket over a wool shirt built up such a static charge that he left a trail of scorched carpet and melted plastic in his wake. After he melted plastic in his car he sought help from firefighters called to the scene, who measured his static field at 40,000 volts." Obviously, despite the fact that this is carried by Reuters, you should take some of the 'facts' presented here with some NaCl.

Comments

Since when is Current measued in Volts ?

[morcego]

Eletrical Current is measued in Amps, not Volts.
That alone is enough to make me seriously doubt this whole business.

Re:discharged...

[cperciva]

Any authoritative debunkings yet?

The entire story is laughable, but the most obvious problem is this:

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.

How does a statically charged jacket "give off an electric current" -- and why would firefighters take possession of it anyway? All they'd need to do to discharge it is pour a bucket of water over it.