From The Daily Mail:
They might dry your hands in seconds but 'super fast' hand dryers do not have the same impact on hardened concrete or tarmac as a road drill at close range, a study suggests.
Researchers said the dryers can cause discomfort to elderly dementia sufferers, as can most things, but when it comes to digging trenches for laying water or gas pipes, a pneumatic road drill should be the construction industry's weapon of choice.
A test in a typical 'box shape of a Barratts house' found that although the dryers recorded sound decibel levels as high as a road drill they had no discernible impact on hard surfaces, researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London have revealed. Interviews with members of the public suggested the dryers have no 'negative' impact on bricks, rocks or dried cement.
Dr Jack Hammer, head of the unit for practice research at Higgins Construction, said the noise created by the dryers was impressive, but that on-site, nothing beats the awsome drilling power of a tool actually designed for the job.
"We also experimented with Motörhead's "Overkill" played at full volume over a full-sized PA. While this made for an enjoyable afternoon, it did not even crack a paving slab."
6 comments:
Look at the mess made of the road and pavements, seen out of my office window, seems the navvies have been using a dyson to dig up the road..... loverly hands though....
AM, thanks, that proves it then.
If you want a PA that will crack paving slabs even when you play "Air on a G-String, take a look at this nifty little piece of Victorian engineering.
Originally developed as an amplifier for wind-up gramophones, it probably had to be discontinued because of lawsuits from the newly-deaf. However it eventually found its niche as a noise simulator for Saturn V's and other Really Loud Things.
In the wrong hands this is truly a Sonic Attack weapon. I'm pretty sure that it could be used to dig up roads. In fact at full volume it could probably kill the occupants of an M1 tank, possibly without damaging the tank.
D, nice link!
There has been plenty of research into working Sonic Attack weapons which will kill soft things like human beings, and you can, as a matter of proven fact, shatter wine glass by singing directly at them, but I don't know about cracking paving slabs, they don't really resonate and are not prone to "fear".
Well a 1000 psi will just about cut paving stones as it is. So 1000 psi + sound should be amazing.
If a researcher wanted to crowdfund an experiment, I'd pay provided they posted the videos on YouTube!
BTW Jack Hammer (see above) co-wrote "Great Balls of Fire" with Otis Blackwell .So it says on the label but the story is that he wrote something different with that title which they ditched keeping the title only and attaching a completely new number by Blackwell As Hammer got half the royalties, he was n't bothered.
JH was n't his real name, of course. Something like Earl Boroughs? Black guy like Blackwell.
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