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Invisible Electrostatic Wall at 3M plant (1996)


Reference: Problems: coulomb forces would be expected to attract a person into the "chamber" formed by the PP film, and the attractive force should increase linearly across distance. There should be no "wall" in the center, a discrete wall is repulsive, also nonlinear.

Very probably the spool is spewing out enormous quantities of ionized air with polarity opposite that of the charge on the moving plastic film. I wonder if film was being peeled from the top of the spool, so that any ionized air created in the cleft would be launched into the "tent-chamber" region? People got interested, and so someone came with a voltmeter, and after throwing a couple more, they checked for voltage, and there was a residual charge after they finally caught on on a plastic sheet to prevent immediate grounding.

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