A New Type of Furniture ESD and Its Implications (1993) [pdf]

Refers to Electro Static Discharge (ESD), if that's not obvious to you.

That's the shock you get when you touch a doorknob on a dry day, although they might refer to that as HBM (Human Body Model) ESD.

Related the to recent HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35742476