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Internal-Combustion Trumpet

Small engine replaces lungs, mouth, lips to make music
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Many cars have tuned exhausts to produce better power or a certain exhaust note (see link). These tones, however, are limited to the range of the engine revs.

Take a small gasoline engine, maybe from a weed eater or chain saw. Afix a regular brass trumpet (or other wind intrument) to the exhaust port of the engine.

Now you have a musical intrument. By manipulating the engine's throttle and the trumpet's valves, you can make different tones. Actually, it would be similar to playing a regular trumpet, since the vibrations normally made with one's mouth would be made by the engine. Perfect for parades/orchestras of motorscooters.

Also possible: internal-combustion powered trombones, oboes, bassoons, pipe organs, flutes, bagpipes, clarinets, etc.

discontinuuity, Jul 25 2005

Trombone Exhaust Trombone_20Exhaust
Similar (and more useful) idea [discontinuuity, Jul 25 2005]

Kaufmann's robo-trumpeter. http://www.deutsche...meister/e_tromp.htm
Hopefully to be restored soon. [wagster, Jul 26 2005]


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Annotation:







       A jet engine (also internally combusted) would be hot.
moPuddin, Jul 25 2005
  

       //A jet engine // doesn't have a pulsed exhaust, and would not reverberate.   

       Somewhere on the Halfbakery was a mention of a race-car engine that was made to play tunes using its computer control. That and this together could make some wild music.
baconbrain, Jul 26 2005
  

       I'd love to see my weedeater, chainsaw and backpack blowers play "Flight of the Bumblebee". That would be fairly impressive, especially if it replaced the whine of the two stroke engine. If the musical selections were changeable and programmable (like the rolls on a player piano), that might even make mundane gardening chores fun again, especially if you were a musician of little note or natural talent. Maybe it could also do "Chase the Clouds Away", for example.   

       [EDIT: Friedrich Kaufmann created a trumpet playing automaton in 1810, which coincidentally utilized some of the same technology that led to the first computers. It's still on display in the Deutsches Museum, but hasn't played a note in many decades due to cracked bellows. More recently, Toyota unveiled a pair of trumpet playing robots in early 2004 with actual "lips" and "fingers" that were designed to show off the dexterity their automation systems could achieve. As far as I know, noone has yet employed a two-stroke engine to provide the breath for a mechanical trumpet.]
jurist, Jul 26 2005
  

       Just finished trying to imagine that in my mind, and it was pretty cool.   

       Seriously, try it.
daseva, Jul 26 2005
  

       If you could somehow link the slidey bit of a trombone to the steering, you could have hilarious sound effects whenever you turned a corner.
pooduck, Jul 26 2005
  

       Put a four inch length of bicycle inner tube over the tip of your car's exhaust pipe (use a hose clamp to hold it in place if you must). Manipulating throttle and engine revs can produce a wide variety of highlarious sounds.   

       Bake it, I think you'll like it.
Texticle, Jul 27 2005
  

       If you had a multi-cylinder engine you could attach several instruments, one to each exhaust port, and have a wind quartet (in the case of a four cylinder).
discontinuuity, Jul 29 2005
  


 

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