There are two processes by which Workman-Reynolds freezing potentials may result in thunderstorm electrification or aircraft precipitation static. One possibility is that charge is transferred when supercooled drops splash on the hailstone or aircrft surface. Alternatively, freezing potentials may develop when cloud droplets freeze on these surfaces and persist long enough to affect charge transfer when ice crystals subsequently collide with the ice-covered surface. Laboratory experiments on the development of these freezing potentials when bulk supercooled solutions freeze, and when raindrops and cloud droplets freeze on impact with an ice surface, show that (1) any potentials developed are very much smaller than the published values for the quasi-static case; (2) in situations of atmospheric importance the drops will be supercooled, and such solutions are very much less efficient in developed potentials than non-supercooled ones; (3) cloud droplets freeze very rapidly, and if any freezing potential develops during this time, then it decays in less than 5 ms and is statistically unlikely to affect charge transfer in subesquent collisions with ice crystals. We conclude that in the atmosphere Workman-Reynolds potentials do not influence the charge transferred by colliding precipitation particles and briefly consider other relevant mechanisms.