"Cold heat" soldering?

[James]

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005, John Foust wrote:

> 
> I'd seen the commercials for this instant-on battery-powered
> soldering iron and wondered if I should add it to my tool box.
> 
> I saw this FAQ on Thinkgeek:

I fucking thought so. I've been trying to figger out how it works and the 
only answer I could come up with is that there is no heat, just a dead 
short that makes the object-to-be-soldered get hot.