Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

New Fire Extinguisher Uses Sound Waves to Put Out Flames

Boom out da fi-ya! Bass out da flames!

Firefighters may be snuffing blazes with deep-toned sound, if a new device invented by two engineering students in Fairfax, Virginia, catches on.

Viet Tran and Seth Robertson's new fire extinguisher looks a little like a conventional one, but instead of a compressed air tank spewing out chemicals, theirs has a loudspeaker the size of subwoofer drumming out sound waves.

It's not much to listen to, just a low hum, but when pointed at flames, it makes them vanish.

In a way, it's like blowing the fire out, because sound waves are basically multiple, regular blasts of air.

When they started out, Tran and Robertson thought high-pitched tones would do the trick. It didn't work.

"It's low-frequency sounds – like the thump-thump bass in hip-hop that works," Tran said.

More

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salisbury could be rid of career and volunteers and have a fire warden use this to protect the citizens

Anonymous said...

I wonder... is this also a new type of weapon? What would be its effect on a person??

Anonymous said...

11:51-It was new in WW2 when Germany experimented with it.It was called "impulse weapon technology".They never actually used it in warfare that I am aware of.