Contrabass Digest

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2002-01-06

 
Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 16:07:51 -0700
From: "David F."
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]

I wonder what frequency the largest smoke stack would toot at (ala pipe
organ), if given the chance to be musical instead of chemical.
 
 

List Server wrote:
> >Yes, the Sudbury smokestack is the world's largest, a quarter-mile tall.
> >For more information on the nickel-toxicity situation there, go to
> >http://www.google.com/ and enter:     sudbury smokestack
>
> The world's tallest smokestack lacks that certain _je ne sais qua_ as the
> ideal tourist magnet, doesn't it?  However, maybe it's worth noting (though
> my cat might disagree with me about this) that wind instruments, even large
> basso profundo bellowers (assuming they're not posessed by demons, etc.)
> don't normally emit toxic smoke.  I think that most people with the skin
> allergy to touching nickel probably already know they've got it, from
> handling coins and other common objects, before they need to choose key
> coatings.
>
> Maybe not, though.  In high school, I met a young violin student diagnosed
> with hysterical blindness.  He turned out not to be hysterical at all:  From
> diligent practicing and constant exposure, he had developed a violent
> sensitivity to the rosin he used on his bow.

---------------------------------------------------------

From: (Louis Rugani)
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 18:40:46 -0600 (CST)
Subject: [CB] Sudbury redux

With the right wind, and no operations at the moment, that Sudbury
smokestack would make one basso-contraprofundomentoso-supremo organ
pipe.

Regards....
Lou
~~~~~~~~~~~~~ **-=\/=-** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The opposite of bravery is not cowardice, but conformity.
       ~ Robert Anthony

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 19:10:13 -0800
From: David Richoux
Subject: Re: [CB] largest smoke stack would toot
 
 

"David F." wrote:
> I wonder what frequency the largest smoke stack would toot at (ala pipe
> organ), if given the chance to be musical instead of chemical.

I don't know that one, but there is that canadian site for the world's biggest echo
chamber that is tons of fun ;-)

(from a Contrabass message 8 Mar 2001)
The "Silophone" is a grain silo in Montreal that's been converted into what
amounts to a gargantuan organ pipe.  This enormous natural echo chamber has
its own website:

http://www.silophone.net/eng/play.html

anyway...

Dave Richoux
---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 00:10:23 -0600
Subject: [CB] frequency the largest smoke
From: Oscar A Wehmanen
 

I wonder what frequency the largest smoke stack would toot at (ala pipe
organ), if given the chance to be musical instead of chemical.

 1100 ft/sec / (5280 ft/4) = 0.8333

 So the fundamental frequency for a 1/4 mile open pipe would be 0.4166
Herz

 2 Cycles in 5 seconds.      Oscar
 

________________________________________________________________

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 05 Jan 2002 23:47:03 -0800
From: Craig Durham
Subject: Re: [CB] largest smoke stack would toot

I understand the smokestack in question is 1/4 mile tall. Since 1/4 mile =
1320 feet, using the approximation f = 512 / L (where f = frequency in
Hz and L = length in feet) yields a frequency of 0.387 Hz, a slightly
sharp G, 7 octaves below the lowest G on a standard piano.

Craig

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Patrick.Scully"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2002 23:58:08 -0800

David,

By jove!  I think you've hit upon a great idea for the US Navy's next
submarine communication system!  <g>

Patrick
(XOX low clarinets and saxophones)
 

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 06 Jan 2002 02:23:22 -0600
From: Jim Quist
Subject: Re: [CB] frequency the largest smoke

>So the fundamental frequency for a 1/4 mile open pipe

Are smoke stacks open pipe resonators? Closed? Cylindrical bore? Conical?
Now then, what are the overtone series for this badass horn?

Jim
 

---------------------------------------------------------

From: "Patrick.Scully"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]
Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 00:49:20 -0800

A contrabass musical use for the Sudbury nickel smelter smokestack:  mount a
fan on the top of the stack when the furnaces are going full blast.  I will
place my unplated Leblanc contrabass clarinet keyguards on a heater line
directly in front of the airstream from the top of the stack.  Over time,
the nickel atoms in the stack gasses should plate my keyguards.  It's a fair
bet that this process will be faster than Leblanc's finest customer service
effort.

On that low note, I promised you an update on the replacement pads for my
Leblanc BBb paperclip.  Now, did you think that I was going to tell you that
Leblanc fixed everything after all, and that everybody went home happy ever
after?  Ha!

After five months of me waiting and Leblanc hiding and waffling, with
several emails to the VP of Communications at Leblanc unanswered, and with
my technician having been subjected to just about every stall tactic in the
book, I took the advice so many of you gave me:  adapt and improvise.

Despite the fact that my instrument is currently in production by Leblanc in
Kenosha Wisconsin, I treated it much as a Cuban taxi driver treats his '57
Chevy needing a new radiator.  Since the parts are, to all intents and
purposes, embargoed,  and the manufacturer could not care less about my
market segment, I did the logical thing and adapt parts intended for another
use, made by another manufacturer.
My technician (as well as many others, including Charles Fobes, contra
mouthpiece maker extraordinaire) assured me that the result would be better
than what would happen if we took a Soviet-era Lada radiator and put it in a
'57 Chevy -- much better, and quite possibly better than the Leblanc
original.

This remains to be seen and heard -- by me -- when I finally get my
instrument back.  This is expected by around January 20.  Assuming it works
out, I will give the full details of parts used and contact info for my
technician.

Oh yea...what about those Leblanc keyguards that need plating?  This is
actually another Leblanc waffle.  My technician ordered a couple of
keyguards for my instrument five months ago as well.  He was recently
informed that there are some keyguards at last, but that it would take four
(4) weeks to get them plated.  Leblanc must have their entire nickel plating
bath hooked up to a couple of weak flashlight batteries.  Or perhaps, they
regard me and my tech much as General Motors regards the hapless owner of a
1957 Chevrolet Taxi in Castro's 2002 Cuba.  SOL.  We may see the day when
Leblanc will look back fondly at us and our "niche" instruments, their last
die hard enthusiasts and only vestige of a once-great musical instrument
industry in the USA.

Happy New Year,
Patrick

---------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 16:33:27 -0500 (EST)
From: "Dr. Carole Nowicke, Applied Health Science"
Subject: Re: [CB] [CB Digest]

On Sat, 5 Jan 2002, Patrick.Scully wrote:

> David,
>
> By jove!  I think you've hit upon a great idea for the US Navy's next
> submarine communication system!  <g>

Oddly enough there's already a submarine gizmo with the acronym of "TUBA."
I have an embroidered patch from the submarine division of the base where
I used to work with a submarine being driven through the center of a
Sousaphone.  There's also a little mushroom shaped design on part of this
patch.  Since it's not related to anything nuclear, I ask what's that?
Well, it's an actual mushroom, as in "that which grows where there is
horsemanure heaped."

Carole Nowicke

***End of Contrabass Digest***


 
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