Static discharge from my air compressor

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Original poster: "terry oxandale by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <toxandale-at-cei-dot-net>



Just thought I'd share this with you guys. Tonight, just prior to bed, I
went under the house to drain the water out of the compressor tank (I have a
car project too). Anyway, the tank drains out a 2 foot piece of 3/4" PVC
pipe with a valve in the middle. I opened the valve (125 psi), and the F15
in afterburner took off. Just after I opened it up, I was surprised to see
several 4" to 6" racing sparks circling around the end of the PVC pipe. It
only last about 2 seconds, but non-the-less, it happened. I guess the only
reason I've not seen this before was because this is the first time I've
done this in the dark (light bulb burnt out). The best way to describe the
effect was like in the first Star Trek movie when V-JER was shooting at the
Klingon ships and the result was that the ship was covered in lightning like
discharges before being destroyed. The effect wasn't as good as my coils,
but the surprise was well worth the experience. Now back you our regularly
scheduled program.