The ‘Guardian’ newspaper carried the following story,kindly sent in by a reader of ‘The Western morning news’(England). ‘Residents near the Teign estuary,South Devon,claim that the newly-strengthened Shaldon bridge whistles and even plays tunes- in f sharp- in windy weather.’ I bet that beats Overton low 'A’s,Alba Bb’s or even contra-bassoons! Come to think of it,Tony Dixon hails from Devon,so don’t be surprised if he brings out a new Ultra low F sharp soon!
How cool! That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of a Bridge actually -whistling-… I read about it in a book once, but never really thought it could work besides something akin to the dissonant sounds you hear when the wind blows under your eaves…
I’ve heard that the failure of the bridge in Eastern Ohio may have been started due to subsonic fluctuations from wind blowing across it like a sharp edge.
When you drive a car with one window down and you feel the wind beating in and out, you are essentially sitting in the window of a large fipple flute playing subsonic notes.
I took on of my basswhistle mouthpieces a connected a funnel and it really howls when the wind blows. Maybe I could sell them as ‘ghost whistles’.
-This is the land of the failing bridges-Washington State, but none seem to have whistled. The taxpayers did, however, upon getting estimates of replacement costs.
-Tacoma Narrows, known as Galloping Gertie, went down a long time ago, and the Hood Canal and I-90 floating bridges more recently. All went down for different reasons. Tacoma Narrows from wind-induced harmonics, Hood Canal due to wind strength, and the I-90 bridge went down after a resurfacing contractor left a plywood cap off the side of one pontoon and a storm filled it with water and it sank, dragging other sections with it.
-Here’s a link to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse:
http://www.ketchum.org/bridgecollapse.html
Brian O.
[ This Message was edited by: brianormond on 2002-11-13 23:46 ]