Students Create Bass-Blasting Extinguisher To Put Out Fires

A pair of students have developed a modern version of the trusty and ever-handy fire extinguisher, and it's a rendition that is sure to titillate dubstep lovers far and wide: it uses a blast of bass to put out the flames. The extinguisher was made by engineering students Seth Robertson and Viet Tran, who funded the creation themselves and used it as a class project for a senior-level class. The result is a 20lb hand-held device that puts out flames without making a mess, and that has the potential to aid in putting out big fires.

The extinguished has gone through a couple different forms before ending up in the final version shown in the video below. According to the university, the pair spent $600 developing the device, and it has a big benefit over the fire extinguisher mounted under your kitchen sink: it doesn't make a big mess when putting out flames.

In addition, a fire extinguisher spreads all over the place, but the students say their extinguisher — which uses low-frequency sounds — can be directed to a specific area. This would prove useful in a kitchen at a restaurant, for example, where blasting some bass toward a fire would be far less disruptive than spraying it.

The students say they didn't get much in terms of support from faculty and other students when they first started their project, but in the end they pulled off the device. Both students have professional jobs lined up for when they graduate, Robertson at the Hanscom Air Force Base and Tran at the Zodiac Aerospace in Dulles.

SOURCE: George Mason University