I received a phone call today from a local industry asking if it was possible for a person to receive an injury from electrostatics. It seems that, on a production line, workers peal labels off of a paper strip and play around with the electrostatics in the process. Just as one person reached to touch a grounded control lever with one hand, another person touched the first person's other arm giving the first person an electrostatic shock which apparently traveled through the chest. I was then told that the first person was injured, taken to the hospital and was found to have bleeding gums and damage to heart muscle. They had the equipment thoroughly checked out and it was completely grounded and could not have been at a high voltage. Hence their question: "Could the electrostatic shock have caused the injury?" I explained that electrostatics can cause injury and described an episode that I read about where Benjamin Franklin received a powerful shock from a Leiden jar. Also one of B. Franklin's letters describes plans for killing a turkey with a shock for a party. Of course there is the killing of the Russian in the kite experiment, although perhaps the latter is in a different league. Does anyone have any more modern episodes to relate of injuries caused by electrostatics other than atmospheric lightning?
Jim Peters
Hillsdale College