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The car is already earthed as the tyres are electrically conductive. That's why you sometimes get an electric shock when touching the car bodywork - the static electricity is discharging from you, through the car, to earth.
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I remember when I was a kid being extremely prone to travel sickness (anything over 30 miles and I would perform a multicolour yawn!).
My mum and dad were always telling me that the car had a chain to stop this (it didn't work). At the time I thought it was a made up story to make me feel better, but to this day they still swear it existed.
Thankfully I've grown out of it as far as land and most air travel is concerned, but don't ever ask me to go on a boat for longer than half an hour.
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When I was a child it was a chain, not a leather strap. The theory was exactly as described, but was obviusly practically implausible because the lowest link pretty quickly got worn away by the road and fell off.
However, pschologically there may well be something in it - children get car sick because of emotion or excitement as much as from just the motion, so if they believed the chain would work, it often did.
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I might be talking rubbish here, but i believe that car tyres are not conductive, due to not enough carbon black?. On the other hand plane tyres are conductive.
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Bagpuss - the tyres contain carbon which makes them somewhat conductive, but at the same time they don't offer a good electrical path, which is why shut in a car is a good place to be in a thunderstorm. I'm not sure whether the shock one gets is due to charge on the car or on the person, but if a voltage difference exists I suppose that is academic.
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Static charge on the car is earthed through the person, as it can't get to the ground through the tyres - that's why you only get the shock once your feet are in contact with the ground. If you do get a static shock from your car from time to time, try this - touch the outer metal of the door while still seated inside, ie not touching the ground. You will never get shocked this way. Stand outside the car and touch it - that's when the charge (if any) is earthed through you. Exception may be if you are wearing rubber-soled shoes! This is why in the event of a lightning storm, inside the car is a safe place to be - if lightning strikes the car, current can't be earthed through the tyres so you don't get electrocuted.
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I get shocks off the bodywork of most cars if I'm wearing trainers. But not if I'm wearing (insert designer label here) boots. I think the static must build up due to the motion of my feet (working the pedals) against the nylon carpet, maybe I need a Roller with Axminster!
A few years back I did once see one of these anti-static strips very securely bolted to the rear bumper of a car, and dangling down to touch the ground. Trouble was, the bumper was plastic...
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With due attention to the title of this thread, who remembers the days of vinyl front bench seats? Great for courting, but a zapping nightmare if you slid across, got out and then touched the door handle.
Oz (as was)
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I remember them pretty well, since my nom de plume comes from YRD 546K, a 1971 Morris Oxford, one of the last off the line which my parents bought from Morris Garages, Reading, when new.
Majestic motor, its rolling acres of bonnet concealing a 1622cc lump which was decoked twice when I were a nipper. Ended up learning to drive in the old thing, which was fun because there was no syncro on first.
Getting back to the point, it also had vinyl seats, and boy did you know it when it was freezing cold or boiling hot...
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Going off at a tangent, and since you quoted that regn. MO, was that from memory, or a photo?
Reason I ask is that I can remember pretty well all of my past cars registrations, starting with Austin 12 DRT50 many decades ago.
Anyone else suffering from this curse?
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Yep, my Dad's old Morris Cowley (remember how the steering column was angled so the driver sat in the corner on that vinyl bench seat?) was MVN 929, followed by a sit-up-and-beg Ford Pop OPY 407 and even earlier (1955?) a "flying" Standard (which he brush painted black one summer) was DNN 627. Mind you I have trouble remembering my present number! A sign of advancing years I think!!
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Saw a static strip on sale today in Halfords. It seems that there is still one born every minute.
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"Mind you I have trouble remembering my present number! A sign of advancing years I think!"
Not necessarily, I always had that trouble, especially when being asked by a nice traffic policeman; luckily SWMBO produced it.
On the other hand -
WG6883. 1938 Rover sports saloon.
BVA161 1940 Austin 8.
EUS 477 1947 2 1/2 Jag.
GM4718 1949 BSA B31
And nothing after that.
Perhaps it's like steam locomotive numbers; people grew out of remembering them.
Tomo
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Not so Tomo.......
Its sad I know but I still remember the names and numbers of the old LMS Jubilee, Patriots, Royal Scots etc.etc..
alvin
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Well, I for one am glad the days of vinyl seats have gone from this country at least, my mother had a couple of (whisper it) Ladas in the 80's and the seats were horrid in summer - not only did they burn your legs if attired in shorts (and what else would you wear as a kid in summer?), but they got awfully clammy. Excellent from a practicality perspective of course.
When did these things die out on the UK market? Mate of mine had a 1983 Escort 1.1 as a first car, and this had (non-reclining!) vinyl seats, must have been one of the last?
Incidentally Morris Ox, that garage you mentioned - was it the huge one on the Basingstoke Road that later became Penta garages? I remember going there several times as a nipper when my dad ran (variously) old Marinas, an Ital and finally a Princess 1700. What a car that was (so he says anyway, and who am I to doubt it?). You didn't need to go to gyms if you wanted a workout in the late 70's/early 80's - just drive a Princess without PAS on a regular basis. I remember my dad borrowing his boss's Granada 2.8i Ghia X and neatly pirroueting it in a carpark because he didn't realise it had PAS (or so much power)!
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Welfare, it was indeed the sprawl which later became Penta. As I remember it, they did a good deal on the Oxford since by that time Marinas were around and they were keen to shift the old barges as quickly as they could. Mind you, ours was a posh version - it had a heated rear window! The windscreen washers did work via a handpump, but it still felt like you were driving a dame.
We never took it back there; the car was serviced by a guy on Kidmore Road, Caversham, not far from where we lived. Decent bloke; even welded the seat for us when the frame broke (!).
Having learned to drive in a tank like the Oxford (think the steering wheel was inspired by something from a yacht) maneouvering seems a doddle these days.
Vinyl seats got very grubby in the grain but came up a treat with a bottle of Decosol.
By the way, Frostbite, I have the reg. number firmly imprinted in my memory and will never forget the car. Or indeed, the biker who finally bought it off my folks for £100 in the early 1980s. He needed family transport fast because two wheels didn't go with a pregnant girlfriend!
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"Anyone else suffering from this curse?"
OVC 87
198 GNW
etc etc etc
and its only last year that I threw out the petrol rationing coupons from the 70's crisis. can't be too careful tha knows lad.
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Not a curse - they make excellent computer passwords!
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>>excellent password
Yeah, in so far as they can be guessed by anyone who knows you.
If it is a password that matters, you should take a word you know well, mis-spell it, and then insert a numeral in the middle of it.
e.g. password/passwurd/pass3wurd
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Sorry to be pedantic, but the statement "This is why in the event of a lightning storm, inside the car is a safe place to be - if lightning strikes the car, current can't be earthed through the tyres so you don't get electrocuted." is half right but half wrong.
When you have several zillion volts of lightning hitting you or your car you will find that rubber shoes and rubber tyres will easily conduct an amount of that energy. I will be safe if I am wearing rubber shoes and lightning strikes me? I think not.
However you WILL be safe if lightning strikes the car. Why?
The car acts as a Faraday Cage and conducts all the energy around its shell (missing you as you are not a nice easy path to earth like the car shell)the earth being THROUGH the tyres - conductive or not (or any grass or twigs that touch the car body. I saw a car test where a golf was driven through a high voltage electricity testing station. Large zaps to the roof, driver gets out other end - no damage (paintwork on roof was tho!) Re the aircraft tyres, they are conductive. An aircraft builds up a large static charge while flying, and needs to be earthed or the first passenger climbing off the plane explodes in a ball of static (in theory)
Re the halford rubber strap? I bet that will conduct if the car is zapped with zillions of volts from a lightning strike.......!!!!
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