Of course we can still build these. Modern foghorns work on the same principles as they did when this one was made: force air past a plate that vibrates, channelling the sound into a horn for amplification and directionality. Every large ship has at least a couple, and while there aren’t too many new lighthouses being built, old ones still need repair and replacement. A lighthouse restoration project on Connanicut Island replaced their foghorn air pump with a modern electric not that long ago, just a couple of decades ago, but it’s as loud or louder than the old mechanical one that succumbed to decades of exposure to the sea. Engines like those in the video, obsolete for decades, are made in miniature by hobbyists and can be seen at any antique engine show, along with steam engines, one-lungers, hot-bulb, and other obsolete technologies. Hobbyists and restoration engineers work on old technologies all the time, rebuilding and re-creating them as needed or desired. Most are eager to teach others about what they do, and the technologies involved.
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Everyone’s already said it but both the video and the machine are very cool. I loved how the audio escalated from peaceful bird sounds, to the precise clicks and clacks of the preparations, to the slow build up of the engine, finally resulting in a landscape shaking blast.
If YouTube’s algorithms screwed with the dynamics maybe he should try Vimeo.
Okay. How many of you out there misread the title and downed an enormous Scotch yesterday?
Can somebody get me that as one of my alarm tones? I’ll give up chimes, or xylophone, or bark, or gong, or cymbals, or chirp, or …
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