Sound Beam In A Scalpel

There's no doubt about it, the science behind sonic horns is fascinating and, as outlined in our last blog post, the effectiveness of this 'sonic science' affords us the opportunity of helping many diverse industries to solve their material flow problems. From cement to carbon black manufacturing, pet foods to cosmetics production, power plants to pharmaceutical companies and more.

Our field of sonic horn technology, however, is just one tiny piece in the jigsaw of what makes up the realm of sound as a definitive science. Recently, I read about a proposed use of sound for a medical application that, if successfully developed, could make a radical difference to modern day surgery.

The idea is to use a sound beam as an invisible scalpel for non-invasive surgery. Sound amazing doesn't it? Well, using sound in medicine is nothing new of course - doctors already have available to them the use of sound waves to blast apart kidney stones. The equipment they use focuses sound waves so that they generate heat whereas the new invention I'm talking about today uses pressure.

Thanks to pioneering work by engineering researchers at the University of Michigan, it may not be long before we see operations being performed where the only thing thing that enters the patient's body is an ultrasound beam. They have developed a carbon-nanotube-coated lens that can convert light to sound and focus high-pressure sound waves to an incredibly fine point just 75 x 400 micrometers (1 micrometer = 1,000th of a millimeter!)

No tests have yet been conducted on humans but if the current program of research and testing is ultimately successful, then we may in the future see operations with far less risk of individual cells being disrupted and possibly even painless operations because the sound beam is so finely focused that it may be possible to even avoid nerve fibres.

Click here for more on this wonderful new pioneering work using sound waves.

Sonic Scrubbing - For Your Kitchen, Teeth & Car!

Given that I have a sonic horn company, you might understand that my attention is drawn to any news items or articles with the word 'sonic'.

This week I received the usual batch of junk mail including mail order catalogs of different kinds. Just why I opened one and began to read it I don't quite know! Anyway, as I flicked through the pages I found my eye drawn to a heading 'Sonic Scrubbers'.

Sonic scrubbers are (apparently) the new power cleaning system being recommended by many retailers for effective household cleaning, particularly in the kitchen where parts of your cooker or nooks and crannies in work surfaces and around the sink can be difficult to clean.

I then moved on in the catalog and a few pages later there was another 'sonic' product - this time a sonic toothbrush!

With all this sonic technology advertorial I thought I would do some searching on Google and I even found a sonic scrubber video on YouTube being used for cleaning car wheel trims!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOPRuBLoF6E

So whether you want to clean your kitchen, your teeth or your wheel trims, it seems sonic power seems to be in fashion right now.

For my part, I will hang on to my kitchen cloth and mop, my old fashioned bristle toothbrush and my little, black wheel trim brush; I have enough sonic technology in my life with sonic horns, the preferred alternative to soot blower technology.

My Local ‘Sonic’ Ghost

I was born and spent many years of my youth in the small Irish town of Dromore, County Down.

On the outskirts of the town lay the Gillhall Estate, built between 1670 and 1680 by John Magill; it consisted of a fine, impressive house and various farm buildings. My mother’s family were Magill, however I never knew of any traceable family connection. When I was living in Dromore, Gillhall was renowned for being one of the most notorious haunted houses in Ireland and nobody ever visited it at night. The story goes that as children Lady Nichola Beresford and Lord Tyrone vowed that whoever died first would come back in the form of a ghost to prove to the other that there was an afterlife.

Well, one stormy night in 1693 whilst Lady Beresford was residing at Gillhall, she was visited by the ghost of Lord Tyrone who informed her that indeed there was life after death. Lady Beresford needed convincing that he was a genuine apparition and not just her having a bad dream so he made one startling prediction and also left two tangible signs to confirm that his ‘visitation’ had indeed really happened. First of all, he informed Lady Beresford that she would die on her 47th birthday. Then he touched her wrist which made the flesh burn and shrink but caused her no pain – Lady Beresford thereafter always wore a black ribbon around her wrist and this could be seen in a later portrait of her at Howth Castle, County Dublin. Lord Tyrone also placed his hand on a chest of drawers and the imprint of his fingers was burnt into the wood. This piece of furniture showing the charred imprint of four of his figures remained at Gillhall for some considerable period of time.

His grim prediction which was to come to pass on her 47th birthday in 1712, she believed passed without incident. So relieved was Lady Beresford that the following year she held a special birthday party only to be reminded by her old clergyman that it was actually her 47th birthday that year. ‘You were born in 1666’ he explained – ‘Then you have surely signed my death warrant’ she screamed in reply and rushed to her room where she let out a cry and died.

When the 5th Earl of Clanwilliam brought his bride to Gillhall in 1909, she was visited by both ghosts of Gillhall and fled, leaving the Gillhall standing empty until it burned to the ground in mysterious circumstances - the very year I left Dromore. You can read the full story here

So why a 'sonic' ghost? Well, it's just the way I see things really - my business involves understanding sonic waves, as in sonic horn cleaning, so I associate the idea of something being made to move without any visual explanation - ie. a sonic horn generates audiosonic acoustic sound waves that make particles move without the need for physical intervention (baghouse cleaning is a great example of this).