Appreciation post: Tried to quiet a noisy steam trap with a rubber mallet in a Cincinnati plant and accidentally synchronized it to play 'Shave and a Haircut'.

The foreman walked by right as it hit the two knocks at the end and just said 'Two bits' before shaking his head and walking away, so has anyone else had a tool or piece of equipment develop a weirdly perfect rhythm?

3 comments

3 Comments

mason_foster682mo ago

Man, that's a classic. Reminds me of this old floor buffer at a school I worked at. The wheel bearing was shot and it would thump in this perfect, slow four-four time, like a heartbeat. We'd actually catch ourselves humming along to it while cleaning the gym. Never fixed it because the rhythm was weirdly calming.

adam_nguyen72mo ago

That weirdly calming rhythm thing happens with broken fans and stuff too.

nathan_hill601mo ago

Huh, I see it a bit different though @mason_foster68. For me, those broken rhythms are more annoying than calming. I had a washing machine that would bang on the spin cycle in this uneven pattern, and it drove me crazy after a while. Maybe it depends on the pitch or how loud the thumping is, but I couldn't hum along to mine.