Sonic Horns Blog

The Sea Monster is back!

2008-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have mentioned in previous ‘blogs’ of my love of both Monkfish and Samphire – well here is a simple and totally delicious recipe which combines these two ‘treasures’ with a few other special ingredients, to make Rosemary Infused Monkfish Chunks in Air Dried Ham Parcels.

Monkfish, as it is commonly known in the UK, because of its ugly appearance is sometimes referred to as either Sea Monster or Sea Monk. It is mainly found in the North Atlantic and presented in UK fish mongers in the form of fillets. However in Spain it is sold in steak form with the central bone in much the same way we buy halibut steaks.

The recipe for the monkfish/ham bit is here. The fish chunks are coated in warm rosemary infused oil and wrapped in any air dried ham. The recipe uses Parma ham - I prefer Serrano and to me it is just as good and cheaper! This link explains a little about the different air dried hams. Then these parcels are baked in the oven with cherry tomatoes to make a mouth watering mix of flavours.

I then prefer to serve these parcels and tomatoes on a bed of samphire. As I previously mentioned in another blog, I simply place the samphire in a colander, wash well with cold water and then pour a kettle of boiling water over the samphire – that’s it!

So go for it, you will be delighted with this great yet simple recipe and let me know if you liked it. By the way, I have found an exciting new monkfish recipe where the monkfish medallions are baked in a lemon and herb crust – I will let you know how it tastes after I make it this weekend!

FLOUR - Proper Flow Control In The Silo & At Home

2008-08-16T08:29:00.000-07:00

Flour is truly a simple yet complex commodity, universally providing the key ingredient to provide mankind with the ‘Bread of Life’. There are many different types of flour, with wheat flour being the most commonly used. There is also:

corn flour (sometimes called corn starch and used in making ice cream)

rye flour (wheat free with low gluten content)

tapioca flour (wheat free, gluten free and made from the root of the cassava plant)

rye flour (wheat free and makes a denser bread such as pumpernickel)

The list of wheat free and gluten free flours is a long one!

Our household flour comes to us in small neatly packed bags and perhaps we only appreciate the true properties of flour once it has been baked into wonderfully smelling new warm bread.

In Ireland, especially in the country areas when I was a small boy the majority of bread baked was called ‘Soda Bread’ which took its name from the fact that instead of using yeast as a ‘rising’ ingredient, to make Irish Soda Bread, a combination of buttermilk liquid and sodium bicarbonate power were used to create carbon dioxide bubbles to ‘rise’ the dough. The buttermilk of course was the by-product of 'churning' whole milk to make butter; indeed it was also used by the farmer’s wife as a thirst quenching drink, stored in the cool of the butter pantry.

When my mother made soda bread she baked them on a flat griddle above the fire to form Soda Farls. During this process she always had flour up to her elbows and occasionally on her nose where she had rubbed it to stop an itch. I used to watch this entire process with awe and my reward for helping her to clean up afterwards would be a slice of fresh, warm soda bread, smothered in Irish country butter – I can still remember that exquisite taste to this day!

As I got older, I was also allowed to help in the dough making process and remember on one occasion when in the middle of adding the flour, she was called away to speak with a visitor. I was instructed to add a tablespoon full of plain flour to thicken the dough and being somewhat complacent, instead of using the big spoon, I decided to tip in straight from (in those days) the small cotton sack. Well at first the flour did not flow but remained ‘firmly’ in the bag until I tipped the bag higher, when ‘whoosh' - half of the flour in the bag suddenly ended up in the mixing bowl and all over me. Of course it ruined the dough and also ruined my chances that day of tasting a freshly buttered slice of soda bread! If you fancy making some Irish Soda Farls you will find a simple recipe here.

Through my company Primasonics I have encountered the exact same flow characteristics of flour within silos. It holds up on the side walls of the silo, making silo cleaning difficult and the build up can become so great that it all dislodges with such force as to cause the flour to run like water out of the silo discharge device and onto the floor. To solve this side wall build up we install a sonic horn of the correct frequency on top of the silo and sound it for a few seconds every few minutes. This prevents side wall build up thus providing controlled ‘mass flow’ but the sound waves also keep the flour within the silo at a flat level on top, thus making it much easier for stocktaking with much more reliable stock figures as a result.

Let me know by e-mail (sound@sonic-horns) if you get round to making and enjoying some Irish Soda Bread!

Never Used A Sonic Horn? Rent One & Try It Out

2008-07-29T08:36:00.000-07:00

Having exported our sonic horns to over 40 countries around the world over the last 11 years, it’s still hard to believe that there are companies in key industries such as cement and carbon black production who have never heard of a sonic horn, let alone used one!

As with all innovative technologies, it can sometimes be difficult to convince an engineer to try a new product if they have been used to using an older, though less efficient system such as soot blowers or air cannons.

So what’s the answer?

Well, we can quote them great case studies and client referrals and that is sometimes enough – but not always. Then I came up with the idea of sonic horn rentals. It’s a way that allows a company to test the effectiveness of a sonic horn and experience for themselves better plant performance and financial savings without having to commit to a capital investment right away.

So far the idea is proving a great hit. Our sonic horns are out on rental in a variety of countries and for all different kinds of applications and many companies have since followed through with a purchase order. To understand more about renting sonic horns please go to our Sonic Horn Rental FAQ page.

Baghouse Filters & Filter Sock Problems

2008-07-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

These days with the rising price of gas, food etc., we all have to try harder to make what we already have last longer rather than, as we perhaps have done in the past, simply throw it away and buy a new replacement.

However having to ‘make do’ with existing industrial plant and wear parts does have a serious downside in terms of loss of performance which in turn results in reduced plant operation – thus a loss in revenue.

One typical example of this is the filter socks/bags used in a baghouse filter. Those of us who either operate or maintain such baghouse filters know the problem only too well. The cost of replacement filter bags has increased significantly over the last few years and so there is growing pressure from the company accountants to make these filter bags last longer. Also there are the additional costs of labour and downtime to be considered.

However there is a surefire way to dramatically increase the bag life whilst at the same time preventing material build up on both the internal baghouse walls and hopper discharge. The simple solution is to install the correct model and number of Sonic Horns (also known as Acoustic Cleaners). See our baghouse cleaning page.

The Primasonics® range of Sonic Horns has been successfully employed over a wide range of filter types and sizes to offer:

Significant increase in filter bag life

Continual lower pressure drops across the bags

Continuous cleaning of all internal surfaces

Complete evacuation of the filter hopper

Reduction in compressed air usage

Some of our clients have experienced a doubling of bag life with all the financial saving that brings. It really does not matter which type of baghouse you have or its size; we tailor design the correct solution. For example in this photograph you can see a single cell stand alone cement pre-packing baghouse jet pulse filter which only requires a single sonic horn housed within a mounting tube and flange, high up on the hopper section.

Going to the other extreme, this second photograph shows a huge smelting plant reverse air filter which required the installation of a greater number of larger, more powerful sonic horns to both help clean the bags and prevent the twelve hoppers from blocking.

On our web site you can find a section providing Enquiry Forms, one for baghouse filter enquiries which is available either in ‘on-line’ format or as a download.

Try it on one of your baghouse filters; you can even initially take out a sonic horn rental. You will be both amazed and delighted!

My Local ‘Sonic’ Ghost

2008-07-07T07:10:00.000-07:00

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).

Belfast Paddle Steamer Aids The Confederacy!

2008-06-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

As well as writing this Sonic Horns Blog I also write an Acoustic Cleaners Blog for our sister company. In my last blog article for that site, I recounted my childhood memory of the steam locomotive railway line which ran from Belfast, Northern Ireland past my home town of Dromore, County Down and onto the lovely seaside town of Newcastle which nestles at the foot of the beautiful Mourne Mountains.

The railway company was called The Belfast & County Down Railway and it also operated a coal powered paddle steamer along Belfast Lough between Belfast and the seaside town of Bangor. One of the most famous paddle steamers used was the PS Bangor Castle (formally the Palmerston). She was built in Glasgow in 1864 as a simple twin cylinder diagonal paddle, had a gross tonnage of 256 and measured 191’ in length by 22’ in width. One reference source has her built as a blockade runner for the Confederate States of America in the latter part of the Civil War.

As you may know, the Civil War began in 1861 when 11 states formed the CSA and lasted until 1865. The CSA bought warships from Britain, the most famous being the CSS Alabama. It is perhaps hard to imagine that this war cost the lives of over 620,000 soldiers. This paddle steamer commenced its daily sailings from Belfast to Bangor in 1888 until it was eventually scrapped in 1899.

It's Indie Time Again!

2008-05-23T10:27:00.000-07:00

As we approach Memorial weekend it is time for the Indie 500 again (Sunday, May 25th). This will be the 92nd occasion that the race has been run since it was first organised by Carl Fisher. This year’s race is shaping up to be one of the most keenly contested for some years with competitors clocking up a staggering 200 laps. One of the favourites this year is British driver Dan Wheldon who won the race back in 2005. Others such as Scott Dixon, Graham Rahal and Australian Will Power will be out to stop Dan from winning his second Indie 500. Have a look at this Indy racing web site for further information on the race.

The Indie circuit has been designed with correctly radiused bends so as to permit the cars to be driven safely at maximum performance. It stands to reason that right angled turns would be detrimental to the cars' performance and potential for success. This is exactly the same engineering design philosophy we adopted when designing our two curved Sonic Horns – the PAS-75C and the super powerful PAS-60C.

On our web site under my ‘Irishman’s Guide’, there is a section which explains why our corrected curved sonic horn design is the correct one and highlights why competitors’ 90 degree ‘curved’ horns will not provide the same optimum as our ‘Indie’ designed models.

You ‘Chan’ Solve Your Cement Silo Storage Problems!

2008-05-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

In my time I have climbed up, down and around a great number of bulk cement silos, in all types of climatic conditions. Solving cement powder hang ups and ratholing within cement silos is something which Primasonics International specialise in. Cement silo tops can sometimes be dirty and even dangerous places to visit. However, such visits can be virtually eliminated by installing the correct model of Sonic Horn on top of the silo on an existing hatch. A few seconds ‘sounding’ at periodic intervals will prevent side wall material build up and create maximum mass flow. Take a look at the benefits of installing sonic horns, also known as acoustic cleaners. You'll read about some prime success stories.

Many of you will have heard of the all action martial arts screen hero – Jackie Chan. Well he had a terrifying experience on top of cement silos in one of his films "Tuxedo". A video clip from U Tube demonstrates what was involved in the silo fight sequence You will surely agree that you don’t want to fool around up there on top of a cement silo! Jackie Chan did all his own stunt work in this film - including sliding down 30 feet and ending up in a truck of cement powder. I am sure glad that Primasonics can solve your bulk cement storage and flow problems in a much easier manner!

Your first ‘safe step’ is simply to complete the online Silo Questionnaire.
There is a pdf version available if you prefer.

By the way, if your silos are really blocked with very hard, old cement powder, you can totally clean the silo without the need for manual entry simply by using our safe, remote, efficient Prima Whip™

Photo right: Our Prima Whip™ in operation

Our Solar System - Fantastic!

2008-04-18T07:32:00.000-07:00

JUPITER – SATURN – URANUS – NEPTUNE – EARTH – VENUS – MARS – MERCURY - PLUTO

Our solar system is truly an amazing ‘place’ with its nine planets. It is difficult to quickly relate the size of each planet in relation to the others. I found something fascinating which shows the relative size of each of the planets and also that of our sun – take a look, it is quite fantastic!

Pluto is the smallest being around 1.0% of the earths mass and is comprised of rock (70%) and ice (30%) with a surface temperature of -235 degrees Celsius. At the other extreme, Jupiter is the largest planet and one could fit around 1,317 earths into the same land mass. It is largely comprised of hydrogen with a rocky core. See: http://www.nineplanets.org/

It certainly puts things in perspective and I suppose if you were equally not familiar with the sizes and technical details of our range of acoustic cleaners, then again the following link would help solve this ‘perspective’ question.

Big Band Fan

2008-04-02T09:10:00.000-07:00

I am unashamedly a Big Band fan and take every opportunity to attend any such concert in the North of England, especially in Cumbria. You many not know it but there is a magazine especially for us big band fans called Big Band Buddies - follow the link to the website.

A few weeks ago I visited the Sands Centre in Carlisle, Cumbria to hear the UK Glen Miller Orchestra with their leader Ray McVay. Ray is a well known big band personality and for some 11 years fronted the Come Dancing Orchestra on BBC1 TV.

I was thinking about Glenn Miller just now as he was born on March 1, 1904. His parents were Elmer and Mattie Lou Miller and they lived at Clarinda, Iowa. In 1921 he decided to skip his graduation years at Colorado and travelled to Laramie, Wyoming to begin his fantastic musical career which sadly was cut tragically short when the small plane he was travelling to France in, crashed on December 15, 1944.

Glen of course was renowned for playing the trombone. The trombone is a musical instrument of the brass family and like all brass instruments; the sound is produced when the player’s buzzing lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate. The trombone is usually characterized by a telescopic slide with which the player varies the length of the tube to change pitches (frequency). The most frequently encountered trombones — the tenor and bass trombones - are both pitched in B♭. Modern trombones include an extra one metre of tubing which lowers the fundamental pitch or frequency from B♭ to F. The base trombone incorporates wider bore tubing plus two keys to significantly lower the fundamental frequency or pitch. See wikipedia for more information on types of trombones.

These principles of both the design of the various trombones and the method of producing the sound frequencies are exactly the same as those used by Primasonics in the design and construction of both their PAS and GRP ranges of sonic horns. To produce the selected six frequencies between 420 Hz and 60 Hz, we spin stainless steel piping to different lengths each with the characteristic ‘bell’ shape seen at the end of all brass instruments. For example, our highest frequency (420 Hz) sonic horn is the shortest with an approximate length of 380mm and is employed to maintain material flow in the discharge area of silos and hoppers. Read more about silo hopper cleaning.

Our lowest frequency sonic horn (also know as sonic cleaners), has a fundamental frequency of 60 Hz, with a length of over 3 metres and is employed for powerful long distance debonding of ash or any dry powder whether in silos, boilers, electro static precipitators or baghouse filters.

The sound waves emitted from a sonic horn occur when compressed air is passed into the Wave Generator causing the titanium diaphragm to flex.

My next Big Band outing is to see the Sid Lawrence Orchestra at the lovely Theatre By The Lake in Keswick, Cumbria with their very talented musical director Chris Dean, who is also a very skilled trombonist! Go get ‘in the mood’!

Soot Glorious Soot!

2008-03-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

Since man first started to burn fossil fuels, soot and ash have always been troublesome by-products. With the advent of Victoria Age Britain came a new soot removal system called the ‘climbing boys’. These were young boys who were small enough to climb up chimneys of large houses and clean them from the inside. These poor unfortunates were greatly abused by their notorious employers and as a result suffered from deformed joints, broken bones, burns and various types of cancers as well as sometimes chocking to death by inhaling soot. It was not until 1840 that parliament passed a law forbidding anyone under the age of 21 to sweep chimneys. More information on chimney sweeps can be found on Wikipedia.

The introduction of innovative technologies, such as central heating systems, saw the rapid decline in the use of older, more primitive household soot removal systems such as using either retractable soot cleaners with a circular brush at the tip or sucking the soot down into a cotton baghouse filter, located in the grate. Those employed within ‘Industrial Victorian Britain’ faired no better. Although most did not have to physically climb up the inside of large factory chimneys, nevertheless the huge emissions of soot from such chimneys blighted the lives of the factory workers who lived in cramped terrace housing close by their place of work. They seldom saw the sun and blue skies, instead permanent sooty smog hung over the towns, resulting in the guarantee of an early grave. In the English county of Lancashire alone in 1830 there were some 560 cotton mills, employing 110,000 people, 35,000 of them children who all worked a 14 hour day.

Within the power generation industry, old technologies such as sootblowers are giving way to cleaner, more efficient innovative technologies such as sonic cleaners.

The soot blower can be one of three types – long or short retractable or rotary, fixed position. The cleaning media is usually a mixture of steam and compressed air which seeks to ‘blast off’ the hard deposits which have built up on the boiler tubes, usually an 8 hour shift cycle. The main three problems associated with this older soot/ask removal system are:

It relies on high pressure - erosion of the tubes is common which results in loss of boiler performance and high repair costs.

This steam/air jet can only reach the area of boiler tube surface directly exposed to the sootblower, allowing soot/ash to still build up and sinter on the non-exposed surfaces.

The soot blowers themselves, especially the long retractable type, carry a high maintenance cost.

The innovative solution to preventing soot/ash from building up on all hot boiler tube surfaces whether within the furnace area or later within the superheater or economizer sections is the sonic horn. A sonic horn uses audiosonic sound waves at selected frequencies to prevent the soot/ash from building up on the entire surface of the boiler tubes and without causing any structural damage whatsoever.

So just as innovative technologies moved us from old fashioned soot removal methods within Victorian Britain and in the home, so the same innovative technologies are replacing older systems to improve the overall efficiency of power generation plants worldwide. Read more on power plant cleaning.

Picture shows a sonic horn installed on a boiler to prevent soot/ash build-up.

My Special Day

2008-03-10T08:25:00.000-07:00

Being Irish, my special day is of course March 17 St Patrick’s Day, which is as popular in America as it is in Ireland. I think that in most countries around the world, people know about St Patrick’s Day, the day of his death in AD 461 – and rightly so. Patrick was born in Roman Britain and when he was sixteen years of age he was captured by Irish raiders and taken as a slave to Ireland. He later entered the church just as his father and grandfather had done and by the eighth century had become the patron saint of Ireland.

Legend has it that he banished all the snakes from Ireland, which of course is true! However what is not widely known is that he was only one of three patron saints of Ireland, the other two being Saint Columbia who died in AD 597 and Saint Brigid, who died in AD 425, her special day being February 1 which is the traditional first day of Spring in Ireland.

On our sonic horns web site you will find two ‘Irish’ references. Firstly, I quote my favourite Irish toast at the bottom of the page about understanding sonic horns:

"May your glass be ever full, may the roof over your head be always strong, and may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead."

Secondly in the website navigation there is a section named ‘The Irishman’s Guide' where you will find various pages with easy to understand explanations about sonic horn technologies - eg. the sonic horn interior.

I hope that as you relax on March 17, drinking your green beer, that you will get a chance to visit this Irish section of our web site – Sláinte!

Communications in Switzerland

2008-02-28T15:58:00.000-08:00

Being born and raised in Ireland and having lived for some years now in the beautiful Lake District area of England, I am well used to having spectacular scenery all around me. Indeed the Lake District is so full of lovely mountains and lakes that it is sometimes referred to as ‘Little Switzerland’. Although being Irish and unashameably bias, I must admit that rural Switzerland is a truly lovely country and of course with modern forms of travel, we can all visit the most remote scenic sites.

Of course, neither travel nor communications did not always exist within these isolated areas and so in many cases urgent communication such as warnings were only possible within the Swiss valleys and mountainsides by using the traditional Alphorn. These were long (8’/2.4m) wooden horns with a wide, curved end, usually carved from spruce or pine. So why did the local inhabitants of these remote areas go to the trouble of carving these very long horns instead of blowing a whistle or bugle – the answer ‘distance’.

Because of its length plus the fact that because it has no lateral openings the Alphorn produces deep, pure natural harmonics which are in fact long, low frequency wavelengths which travel a great distance – literally from valley to valley. The whistle or bugle, with its much smaller resonance chamber, the resultant wavelengths are high pitched and shorter – so they could not be heard in the next valley.

These laws of acoustics – high frequency wavelengths travel shorter distances compared with long, low frequency wavelengths – are employed by us within our range of Audiosonic Acoustic Cleaners. That is why we have a range of six key frequencies between the short 420 Hz frequency and the very long 60Hz frequency. For a more detailed explanation take a peek at this link - http://www.sonic-horns.com/acoustic_frequency.htm - which is contained within my Irishman’s Guide section within the web site – www.sonic-horns.com