Resonance Mining

It has long been known by scientists that sound waves that cause our eardrums to vibrate, thus producing a physical effect that our minds can interpret as sound, have similar effect on others substances. Most notable is the ability of certain opera singers to find a pitch so acute, so exact that when produced with sufficient volume it can shatter crystal. Many have experience the sympathetic thump in one’s chest in response to a particularly loud firecracker or the rattling of windows in response to thunder. It perhaps will come as no surprise, then, that scientists have looked into the possibility of using harnessing this effect for industrial purposes.

One such attempt was in mining. In the mid-1960’s research was done into developing a machine that would use sound resonance to reduce different composites of earth to rubble without the need for digging or blasting. Some of the challenges encountered were inventing an amplifier capable of emitting enough volume to be ...