On Sat, 25 May 2002, Peter L. Peres wrote:

> On Fri, 24 May 2002, Sean H. Breheny wrote:
>
> >I don't get what the beat freq has to do with this. A beat shouldn't be
> >able to excite a resonance at the beat freq, unless there are significant
> >nonlinear mixing effects going on.
>
> I don't know either but windows usually don't close perfectly and have
> some play, especially large tall church windows. Maybe this was the
> 'diode'. Anyway they took a few seconds to start 'singing'. I'm pretty
> sure damage would have occured before too long (I did not intend to do any
> damage - I was quite scared in fact).

Want my theory?  I'm thinking maybe it was like a tank circuit, or an old
spark gap transmitter.  The natural resonant frequency of the windows was
a harmonic of the beat frequency of the organ pipes, so the waves from the
orgam were enough to excite resonant oscillation in the windows - which
may well have self-destructed shortly.  Not exactly a transmitter, but
SOMEONE would have received a clear message...  8-)

Dale

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