......a scanned in newspaper article...........
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Headache over a humming mystery There are hums and hums as Winnie the Pooh might have observed (but didn’t). There are those hums of the Pooh variety: “Isn’t it funny how a bear loves honey. Buzz buzzz buzz. I wonder why he does.” And then there is the Cambridge hum, which has much to do with buzzing but so far as the resources of British science have been able to establish nothing at all to do with bears and their passion for honey. The Cambridge hum is the name of an irritating noise giving hundreds of Britons sleepless nights and environmental health officers something of a headache. The mysterious sound has been reported from various parts of the country over recent years, but despite intensive research into the subject scientists have been unable to locate the source or provide a convincing explanation. Latest reports of the hum come from York where the city council has persuaded a group of local citizens to keep night-time diaries in an attempt to track down the noise. One local victim is Industrial journalist Mr Bill Lang, who lives in a detached brick house on the outskirts of the city. “It woke me up at about three o’clock in the morning towards the end of August.” Mr Lang recalled yesterday. I can only describe it at a humming noise like two diesel engines idling away, slightly off beat with each other. My wife heard it as well. It went on until about seven o’clock.” Initially the noise hit the Lang household about four to five nights a week, but the frequency has since gone done to two nights. None of their neighbours are affected. “It’s almost as if some malignant person was directing it at our house,” said Mr Lang. The job of hunting the hunting the hum in York has fallen on Local Pollution Control Officer, Mr Jim Thompson who said yesterday: “It’s an airborne noise, low frequency with a beat. That’s really all I know about it.” Mr Thompson said he had established that the noise - which he has recorded - has a frequency of about 40 to 42 cycles a second, but such a long wavelength that it was virtually impossible to establish the direction of the source. Intensive research has been conducted into the Cambridge hum by the Department of Acoustics at Chelsea College, London. Despite the use of directional microphones researchers have so far been unable to detect the source of the external hum plaguing the Langs. Theories include noise created by the jet stream – fast flowing, high altitude mass of air – or the sound of natural gas flowing along the national pipe network. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Hum Sufferers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hum-sufferers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
