Making fire dance to the rhythm of sound waves. This is what this musical fire board is trying to do, by offering us a new way to understand music, in a rather hypnotic way.
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2500 flames at the same time
The Pyro Board was developed by Sune Nielsen, a physics student at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, and by a group of aspiring chemists. His invention is based on the Rubens tube, an experiment dating back to 1905 that involves the use of a perforated pipe through which combustible gas flows.
Once ignited, the flames that emerge react according to the sound that passes through the tube causing them to change shape, size and colour according to the variations of the waves. Sune Nielsen and his associates decided to push the experience even further by using a perforated plane with 2500 holes instead of a simple tube, again being fed by fuel.
An incredible experiment
The inventor first shows what happens with low and high frequency sounds. We can then very well see that the height of the flames and their colour vary according to the sounds that are crossing the plane. He then plays a piece of music using speakers, and the experiment then takes a different turn. Because the frequencies are then very different, the fire follows the same pattern.
A hypnotic and beautiful show then takes shape, both physical and artistic. However, when asked how this idea came to him, Sune Nielsen did not take into account all these considerations. ‘We really liked the idea of the Rubens' tube but we said to ourselves “The more fire there is, the better,”’ explains the student.
