With a giant glass pipe, a slice of ceramic cut from a diesel exhaust system, and a strip of toaster wire, I built an acoustical cannon: The Horn of Jericho. It is the brainchild of John Wight, a research scientist at Corning Incorporated, and it is probably unique.
It is a vast enlargement of a test tube-sized design, distributed as a $14 kit by Penn State.
The setup has no moving parts. There is no speaker; only the air itself moves! Air passing back and forth through the channels of the ceramic resonates, driven by the temperature difference across the ceramic. One side of the ceramic is heated by toaster wire and the other is cooled by zip lock bags filled with iced water. (The glass pipe itself keeps the electrical wiring and the water safely separate.) As long as the temperature difference is maintained, the pipe shakes with a deep, pure tone that can be felt several rooms away! (For more science, read about thermoacoustics.)
Video does injustice to the sheer volume of the rumble, but it is easier to appreciate what it looks like.
Video Sweep of the Horn of Jericho…
YouTube Video
More pictures…
2 responses so far ↓
1 Janet Fogg // Aug 13, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Wow, Dan this is really cool! Your website is very interesting, keep up the good work. Email me once in awhile.
Janet
2 Christopher Wirz // Aug 16, 2008 at 2:27 pm
You’re lucky you got to put this online. The most I was able to take from a Corning Internship was a paper copy of the paper I had written! In any case, I like the new layout. Glad you’re using extensible packages. One can’t do thier entire page in notepad in their free time these days.
Leave a Comment