In the interests of ECN members, and of providing further evidence that we English are completely craz..... I mean eccentric [Linked Image], I've just carried out a few practical experiments.

Keep in mind that I was using a supply at 240V RMS to ground, and a neon tester designed for such which probably has a higher series resistance than the ones sold in the States.

First up, with the tester hardwired directly across 240V, I obtained a current of 180 microamps, so that's the maximum possible. The rest of the tests were carried out with my thumb on the button and a meter in series with the hot supply to the tip.

Standing barefoot on the dry lino in my kitchen gave a reading of around 60uA. Peeling the lino back and standing directly on the floorboards increased this to about 80uA (and these boards are on about 1-inch battens which in turn are resting on a solid concrete slab).

I don't happen to have any glass laying around, but I tried various combinations of carpet offcuts, paper lining, etc. to stand on and the lowest current obtainable was about 20uA, at which point the neon was obviously considerably dimmer than before.

That could still be due to resistance, so I decided to use air as an insulator by jumping up and down. I couldn't stay off the floor long enough to get any sort of reliable reading on the meter, but I can confirm that the neon dimmed but was still alight when my feet were off the floor by about a foot or so.

I think that proves that the human body can provide enough stray capacitance to the surroundings to keep the neon lit.

And NO, I don't have a photo of me barefoot in my kitchen hanging on to test leads while jumping up and down! [Linked Image]