🚀 go-pugleaf

     I've heard of a couple of similar phenomena:

          * In the late '60s or early '70s, Popular Electronics had
            an article on an "electret" -- so named because it was
            an E-field version of a magnet.  They even had a way to
            make one -- place a voltage between two plates, pour melted
            carnuba wax between them and let the voltage remain until
 	    the wax had cooled.  The resulting "electret" would charge
	    up, and you could short it periodically and get a spark.
	    I'm not sure how it works -- perhaps polar molecules are
	    aligned by the voltage before the wax cools, and naturally
	    tend to line up that way afterwards.  I guess it could also
	    be another "cold fusion"...

	  * People who fix TVs usually learn early to ground the second
	    anode of the CRT while fixing it, because, if left ungrounded,
	    the second anode tends to charge up to a painful voltage.
	    Again, I'm not sure of the "why" behind it.

						Carl Wuebker
						clw@hprnd.rose.hp.com