Xref: utzoo unix-pc.general:3159 comp.sys.att:6799 sci.electronics:6715
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,comp.sys.att,sci.electronics
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Conductive Dust Bunnies
Message-ID: <1989Jun24.201250.24466@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1989Jun14.042949.597@ivucsb.sba.ca.us> <19512@cup.portal.com> <224@bongo.UUCP> <321@cbnewsi.ATT.COM>
Date: Sat, 24 Jun 89 20:12:50 GMT

In article <321@cbnewsi.ATT.COM> fiesta@cbnewsi.ATT.COM (eric.c.beck) writes:
>> photocopier toner (laser printer toner works too). This dust is mostly 
>> carbon, often with some paraffin wax.
>
>	I thought the toner consisted of extremely fine plastic particles
>which, after being attracted to the paper by a static charge, are melted
>into the paper by the "hot plate" inside the copier.

Pretty much so.  However, there has to be a pigment to make them black,
and carbon is the usual choice -- it's cheap, very black, and chemically
benign.  Most black inks are likewise carbon-based.
-- 
NASA is to spaceflight as the  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
US government is to freedom.   | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu