Fifth & Huron

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This should perhaps be filed under Stopped.Listened. I wonder if any readers can identify this sound: [.mp3 of a democratic sound]

- observed by on

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Copyright 2014 The Ann Arbor Chronicle.

13 Comments

  1. By peter honeyman
    July 25, 2014 at 9:41 pm | permalink

    Sounds like a TTY 33

  2. By Robert LaJeunesse
    July 25, 2014 at 10:44 pm | permalink

    Too fast for a TTY 33 (I had one!) There’s a lot of intermittent high frequency content that sounds like sanding, or a machine exhaust, or a very fast oscillating device. But it’s pulsed, which is a big clue that doesn’t yet help me figure it out. It could be a really fast dot matrix printer, or a beefy old “train” printer.

  3. By kittybkahn
    July 26, 2014 at 2:50 am | permalink

    Mimeo?

  4. By Trevor
    July 26, 2014 at 9:42 am | permalink

    Is this a Chad-Maker 2000?

  5. By Tom Brandt
    July 26, 2014 at 10:42 am | permalink

    No. [4] is the best answer, even if it is not the correct one.

  6. By TeacherPatti
    July 26, 2014 at 11:37 am | permalink

    I want it be a drum machine that has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

  7. By johnboy
    July 26, 2014 at 12:34 pm | permalink

    Daisy wheel printer

  8. By Juliew
    July 26, 2014 at 1:48 pm | permalink

    Ballot counter?

  9. By Dave Askins
    July 26, 2014 at 2:23 pm | permalink

    Re: [8] Ding ding ding. You have won the enduring respect and admiration of election workers everywhere. That was from the public accuracy test, held Friday July 25, for the ballot counting machines to be used in the Aug. 5, 2014 election. The machine was printing out results from a test run.

    Equipped with this knowledge, listen closely again. Which ward was this for?

  10. By Jim Rees
    July 27, 2014 at 9:26 am | permalink

    I had a theory that you could tell which ward by counting the individual bursts of sound, and assuming each burst represents a precinct. But I can’t get that to work.

  11. By TJ
    July 27, 2014 at 1:45 pm | permalink

    My theory is Ward 3 – there’s a singular sound; then 3 that sound similar; then something different. My guess is the three in the middle are for the ward. And goodness knows they need to make sure Ward 3 counting works right this year!

  12. By Robert LaJeunesse
    July 28, 2014 at 8:14 pm | permalink

    Dave, is it the sound of the machine counting ballots, or simply the sound of printing out the results?

  13. By Dave Askins
    July 28, 2014 at 9:54 pm | permalink

    Re: [12] It’s the sound of the paper tape being printed out.