Earthing/grounding mat for bed: Anecdotal experience?

[Ottavio Caruso]

Has anybody here ever tried one of these earthing/grounding mats?

[Ottavio Caruso]

Op 24/08/2023 om 08:40 schreef Ottavio Caruso:

Forgot to ask. Is it safe to connect these mats into the electrical earth? If there is a current leak, would that not go into the mat?

[Brian Gaff]

What for? I know I nearly get electrocuted when taking off the duvet cover without a mat. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

You need just a bleeding resistor to stop sparks. Maybe you would need to wear rubber soled boots in bed? Brian

[John Rumm]

What earthing/grounding mats are you talking about?

[Colin Bignell]

Sounds like the sort of thing that would have been in the long deceased, but fun to read, Innovations catalogue.

[John Rumm]

What we referred to as the "walrus polisher" catalogue :-)

[John J]

Like X-Ray spectacles?

[Tim+]

I am shocked that you’re unaware of the hazards of un-earthed sleeping John! At the very least you need equipotential bonding to your partner. ;-)

Tim

[mm0fmf]

The kind trolls talk about ;-)

[John Rumm]

Don't worry, I have a special probe for that :-)

[Smolley]

...and a warm, moist receptacle.

[Smolley]

Everyone is included, no discrimination.

[Tim+]

Just don’t let your earth rod dry out. ;-)

Tim

[ARW]

It's always much better when you are at different potentials and the sparks fly.

[Brian Gaff]

There have been several over the years, not sure if they are snake oil though. One used to go over the mattress and earth to the metal frame of some beds, the others were literally floor mats that you earthed. A bit like a giant anti static workstation for handling sensitive components like COMES chips. The idea was to keep everything at the same potential, since they were not actually like wire is conductive, they were more like having a bleed resistor so nothing could get charged up. I need one in my bedroom, as if I get up and touch a filing cabinet in the corner, I get a crack and I'm fully awake. The same thing happens if I walk about in there for a bit. The filing cabinet just happens to be big and metal, its not actually earthed. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Many also advocate the magnetic blanket of course. It is supposed to stop arthritic pain during sleep. I think somebody did some blind tests of these, and they can actually work, though nobody is quite sure of the mechanism. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

Yes they had a device called Ray-o-vac, that was supposed to clean vinyl records by rotating them in a slot with carbon fibre bristles and a tiny vacuum inside. Most of the time although it took off visible dirt, it did not clean deep in the groove and managed to charge up the disc as you removed it so all the much flew back on. There was an even cheaper version sold by Woolworths, that used foam and chucked the dust out into the air completely which was even less effective, but then it was made by Ronco.

Brian

[Colin Bignell]

How much magnetic junk do they pick up though?

[Brian Gaff]

I don't think they actually existed. However at one time they sold a little passive set of badges that were supposed to indicate if you had been near dangerous radiation by either changing colour or a line appearing. Seemed a bit pointless telling you if it was already too late!

Did they also not stock the Buttoneer device that was advertised on TV, that was basically a similar device to those that fitted price tags to clothing using a nylon attachment that was heated to flatten the ends?

I'd love to know where a lot of their oddities went to. Most of course were just novelties and had no use at all. They had a kind of perpetual Snow Globe that needed batteries, a very handy item, not. They also had a so called anti static record player mat. It seemed to basically be a bit of 3M conductive foam cut in a circle with a hole in the middle. No it failed miserably, and often came off with the record.

They also had a rebranded Ambit-Tune for a while. This was a device to enable reception of BBC long wave on sets that only had Medium wave. Basically, two ferrite rods, a one transistor oscillator/mixer and a 9v PP3. You placed it near you radio on a blank part of the band and uses a screwdriver to tune in Long wave. Its about as useful today as a chocolate teapot.

Does anyone remember the shop called Proops? They used to be in London near Edgeware road. They were a bit like Innovations, but they had mostly novelties. Who remembers the perpetual motion globes? A spinning set of arms not unlike a wind speed device, inside a vacuum in a globe shape. One side was dark the other light and these things spun apparently with nothing to power them at all. It had something to do with cold body radiation recharged from any light source that might be around. Then there were those globes with a high voltage inside that glowed purple, but when you touched the outside little fingers of lightening cam across the void inside to where your fingers were but you felt nothing. In the base these devices had a high voltage generator and the apparently empty globe had a gas of some sort inside. This was also the company who sold ball bearing clocks. Brian