Over the years I’ve found that electric wheelchairs can build a large amount of static electricity. Quite often this charge would be dispelled when my chair would come into contact with the metal of elevator doors, metal doorways or other such metal structures. This proved particularly interesting during my time in college.
While attending college at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), I had a particularly interesting experience in the campus cafeteria, Debot. The main level of the cafeteria was upstairs, requiring me to take an elevator up. The elevator was behind a closed door with an electric door assist. The doorway to the area had a metal door-frame. When my chair would come into contact with the metal of the doorway a spark would jump from the chair’s foot rest to the door frame, and the door assist would activate and the door would open.
Many times while joining friends for lunch or dinner at the cafeteria, I would pull a fun trick on them. I would gracefully glide up to the doorway, just enough for the foot rest to make contact with the doorway to the elevator room. The door would then mysteriously open, as if by magic. My friends had no idea how I was performing this feat. They would jump up and down waving their hands in front of the doorway, thinking there must be some motion sensor. Others suspected I had been given a remote to the door. I would just glibly apply “It’s MAGIC!”.
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