A pair of seniors at George Mason University in Virginia have invented a device that uses various levels of sound frequencies to extinguish flames. In other words, these guys are aiming booming bass directly at fires to put them out.
Viet Tran and Seth Robertson, both who are graduating from GMU’s Computer Electrical Engineering program this coming may, unveiled a video back in February via the school’s YouTube account. The students explain how the device, which looks a lot like Megatron’s arm-gun, is aimed to essentially break apart the blaze and end it.
Now having gone viral with well over 2 million views, Tran and Robertson are science rock stars at the moment, even though their device isn’t quite ready for prime time yet. A local Washington area outlet spoke with the gentlemen, and it appears the rest of the nation is catching up with them as well.
Tran and Robertson’s device, which has the working name of the “wave extinguisher,” was examined on the N4GM website and gives a bit more detail about the ambitious aims the students have for the sound extinguisher.
From N4GM:
Their new fire-fighting solution works with sound waves, to speak English, by pushing low frequency sound waves “30 to 60 hertz range” to the flames you can separate the oxygen from the fuel. The fire has a triangle of needs: Heat, Fuel and Oxygen. And simply by taking any of these needs away, you can put out the fire. What wave sound does to this triangle is to bring air (Oxygen) back and forth which keeps the air away from fire but in molecule levels. The fire will act like a cat going after a laser pointer light and that is all it takes to cut off the oxygen from the fire.
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But the inventors have even more dreams for their new flagship, Washington post reports: “Robertson and Tran envision their technology being used to put out fires in homes — and in the wild. If properly scaled, sound-wave extinguishers would eliminate the need to douse forests in chemicals or waste untold gallons of water”. But that’s still a long way away.
Tran and Robertson’s have filed a preliminary patent application for the wave extinguisher. And how’s this for ingenuity: the device only cost them $600 bucks to make. Can we say “ching-ching” in the coming years should they clear the patent hurdle?
Watch the video from George Mason University students Viet Tran and Seth Roberston below. Hit the following page to see WUSA-9’s report from last week.
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Photo: YouTube
