The hum is it safe?

[JohnRoss]

I know some of you are going to think that I have lost it but am I the only one to notice the HUM in the Deux Sevres area of France and maybe over an even wider area. At first I thought it was just tinnitus but every evening for more than a week, I think not. There has been a lot of press about the HUM over the years, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hum  and http://www.eskimo.com/~billb/hum/hum1.html clearly a lot of folk have heard this. In Hawaii they thought it was due to volcanic action and we do get earth tremors here in France once in a while so could it be? Men tend to hear it more than women for some reason. As others have said I tend to notice it more indoors as the ambient level is lower. Again more noticeable in rooms with reflective surfaces and little absorbent material and where standing waves are detected, by me anyway. The XYL is not sure if she can hear it or not. So has anyone else heard it, ? Not really quite like tinnitus more like a motor running in the distance or a transformer hum. Spooky or what!..........................................JR

[Mr Tivoli Blue]

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...................Not sure if i heard it last week.[:)]

[AnOther]

Not in the same region but oddly enough when sat by the window in the study of our house I often hear what I take to be a vehicle approaching up the lane and look out of the window but see nothing.

The sound is identical to when someone is in fact driving up the lane and about to emerge from the trees - very odd !

[Thebiga]

Coming from Bristol I remember a fair number of years ago they were all going on about 'The Bristol Hum' I don't think anyone ever did get to the bottom of it. Unless anyone knows better?

[Rose (& Greyman)]

I raised this last year http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1504550/ShowPost.aspx but never solved it. We've changed bedroom since and it is less prevalent but still, rarely, comes back to haunt me. It's not tinnitus because I don't hear it when I spend any time away.

[JohnRoss]

Ok so it is not just me then! Maybe the French have started work on their sonic cannon again. Hit the right frequency, sub-sonic, and matter, including people, just falls apart. Body resonance ain't nice and has been responsible for several chopper crashes not to mention motorbikes...................................JR

See http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread323621/pg1  Aye we're doomed ah tell ye, doomed !

[PaulT]

[quote user="AnOther"]

Not in the same region but oddly enough when sat by the window in the study of our house I often hear what I take to be a vehicle approaching up the lane and look out of the window but see nothing.

The sound is identical to when someone is in fact driving up the lane and about to emerge from the trees - very odd !

[/quote]

They obviously did not tell you, when you bought the house, about the ghost of the farmer who still drives up the road who was killed when a cow fell out of the trees on to his car.

[JohnRoss]

Thebiga there were many suggestions about the Bristol HUM, a city I know well, but I like these three:

Someone suggested that it was the work of devils intent on stirring up mischief and discontent.

One man was sure that the cause of the  noise was UFOs recharging themselves off the National Grid

Conspiracy theorists were certain that the Government was responsible for “The Bristol Hum”, broadcasting messages from secret research stations...............This would seem the most likely!.........................JR 

[The Riff-Raff Element]

People harvesting maize? That seems to be the origin of the hum around here. The cutters on the front of the combine are like scissors and the motion looks like a few cycles per second. Men tend to hear lower frequencies better than women, I believe.

[mint]

[quote user="The Riff-Raff Element"]People harvesting maize? That seems to be the origin of the hum around here. The cutters on the front of the combine are like scissors and the motion looks like a few cycles per second. Men tend to hear lower frequencies better than women, I believe.
[/quote]

That might explain why they don't hear their wives who are usually women and who tend to have "higher" voices?

That's the lamest excuse I have ever heard as to why all men are selectively hard of hearing.

[JohnRoss]

Pardon..........eh.............what..........No but it is too constant to be a machine roaring round a field and they don't cut maize round here at night in the dark so a non starter I am afraid.........................JR

PS As men get older it is the higher frequencies we tend to lose first, you could regard it as a natural progressive protection filter, say no more!

[cooperlola]

[quote user="JohnRoss"]

PS As men get older it is the higher frequencies we tend to lose first, you could regard it as a natural progressive protection filter, say no more!

[/quote]You are now sailing extremely close to the wind, if I may say so, JR![:D]

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

That's the lamest excuse I have ever heard as to why all men are selectively hard of hearing.

[/quote]

Do I get some sort of prize then?  [:D]

From a distance it does sound like a constant hum (I can hear it now). But, if it's going on for more than a couple of days, it can't be maize cutting I realise.!

Mystery!

[sharkhunter]

It could be electricity, have you noticed your lights fading and then getting brighter ???????????

Just a thought

[JohnRoss]

Well now the spooks must be reading these pages as last night I heard it not. Has anyone else stopped hearing it?

As to the nautical reference all I can say is that I cannot sail directly into the wind. If I comes head to wind and lose steerage Jim lad, I be said to be "in irons" and may begin to travel slowly backwards and me sails be luffing and no mistake!.......J (three sheets to the wind) R

[Thebiga]

To much home made scrumpy maybe!  A gentle let off of gas perhaps..[blink]

[JohnRoss]

No not a raspberry tart but similar in frequency though more muted one would say. A nautical representation might be quiff and, of course, the Scottish slang form though not to be found in the Oxford English Dictionary though these Victorian omissions are outrageous lexicological fascism. So there...............................................JR

PS Spoke too soon as it was back again last night and no scrumpy or ought else consumed to excess!

[Kitty]

Noise carries a long way.  I live 5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean (with dense forest in between) but we can hear the waves, especially at night.

[Just Chris]

I suffered from an apparent hum (that no-one else could hear) in the UK (West London) for a couple of years before moving here. I was convinced it was a large diesel engine ticking over somewhere. I even used to get up at night and look for generators running locally.

The GP wasn't particularly helpful, either. I also contacted the British Tinnitus Association for advice.

I got used to it in the end. You can get a device which plays white noise, or other sounds which mask the hum, but they are often even more annoying!

Having moved to France, I still suffer from time to time. I have to accept that either it is a form of tinnitus, or that I am of a group of people who are susceptible to vibrations in the ether.

But there was indeed a Bristol Hum, and one or two others, too - in fact there was an item on the BBC news recently, I recall.

Chris

[Bugsy]

Watch the Matrix, it will all be revealed ..............

[JohnRoss]

Could it be tunneling Morlocks right underneath our feet?....................................JR

[ernie]

Haven’t heard a hum yet, but I notice that radio stations near Niort are often drowned out by a low frequency hum (it’s a cheap car radio).  Very annoying.  Maybe there’s a jamming station nearby ?

 

Ernie

 

PS  I am picking up plenty problems on this site tonight, eg, I click to the next page, but I go immediately off line.

 

At one point, I was required to log in again and I was not able to do so, but - I am cleverer than any computer, so, here I am again, even though it's time to go to bed.

 

E

[JohnRoss]

Thanks for your input folks...............................................JR

[babs]

Hi John-Ross, I know its a while since you posted this. I have a "hum" since 4 months now and its driving me to distraction. I'm in the Lot-et-Garonne in the middle of the foresst and my tranquility is gone. Its definitely nothing that could be switched off to put it that way, I have researched everything. Its everywhere outside and also inside the house, stronger when it rains or with fog. It actually covers several square kilometres but beyond that there is nothing. Definitely not a self-generated sound like tinnitus, when I really plug up my ears I hardly hear it or not at all and it doesn't exist everywhere I go. In my house I feel constantly like I'm under some "tension" that comes with the sound as if one is very close to something that radiates. Difficult to explain. Others also hear it but not everyone (like several half-deaf or tinnitus ridden neighbours several hunderd metres away. I was trying to find where else in France this might occur. I had never heard anything about strange sounds or hums before and haven't given up trying to do something about it yet. Do you still hear a noise? Do you know of other places in France?

[JohnRoss]

Seems to be a lot on the net about the dreaded hummmm. Examples below. I

think I would put my money on the one about water pipes or the electricity grid.

Masking seems the only solution at the moment!........JR

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10407863

http://www.justanswer.com/plumbing/6ajf0-suffering-low-frequency-hum-heard.html

http://sandaura.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/a-constant-non-stop-low-frequency-hum-heard-in-my-home/

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!forum/hum-sufferers