Conductive Dust Bunnies

[Henry Spencer]

In article <321 at cbnewsi.ATT.COM> fiesta at 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 at zoo.toronto.edu