On a dry day, when I scoot out of the car, I know that the next thing I touch will give me a static shock. I walk around carrying my charge, waiting to administer it to a suitable target. When we were kids, I would scuff across the carpet, sneak up behind my brother and shock his ear. He would return the favor at the earliest opportunity.
It should be possible for a small, belt-mounted device to regenerate this charge so that at any given time, your body has a shock ready to deliver. This would be a worthy goal in its own right, but I propose that this would make an excellent insect deterrant. Biting insects coming to investigate would be shocked as they landed, falling to the ground. As opposed to DEET and repellants specific for biters, this would also work against sweat bees and those annoying gnats which do not bite, but simply love to land on you. It may even work before the insects land, as the field would induce charge in the insect winds and suck them in to take their medicine.-- bungston, Dec 31 2004 Something like this? http://sprott.physi...du/images/TESLA.GIF [ldischler, Dec 31 2004] Just be sure not to kiss anyone.-- Zimmy, Dec 31 2004 You would have to put a safe gaurd in it to prevent from shocking someone {If you shock some one at just the right / wrong time you can kill them} or turning off when it detects Gasoline "KAFWOOM!AH I'm on Fire!" and if youch metal. Cause if you go to turn your computer/VCR/Electronic equipment and the case or anything on is metal you will ESD {Electric Static Discharge} it, and that whole piece of expenisve tronity is dead, you fried all th circuits in it! You Murderer! Sorry... Some Teflon spray or cleaner spray should come with to get rid of unsightly bug bombs. Other than that you are good to go. PS: Might this interfere with Pacemakers? And what about people with Metal plates and or filings and Keys!?-- LightDemonCodeHunter, Dec 31 2004 I always wanted a personal laser to zap incoming mosquitoes and other insect pests (brothers-in-law, etc.). Electric discharge would be just as much fun.-- DrCurry, Dec 31 2004 [LDC] - I remember that older computers used to be very vulnerable to static shock. We zorched the old Apple II many times. I burnt out the keyboard on my old Franklin once this way also. It seems that computers are more resistant to static shocks now. As regards killing people with static electricity, my understanding is that these type of shocks have high voltage but low current, and thus do not affect muscle / heart the way household electricity might.-- bungston, Dec 31 2004 surely if *your* feet are on the ground then the bug will be grounded also!-- po, Jan 02 2005 random, halfbakery