Have You heard the Hum?

For decades, hundreds of people worldwide have been plagued by an elusive buzzing noise known as "the Hum". Some have blamed gas pipes or power lines, others think their ears are faulty. A few even think sinister forces could be at work. "It's a kind of torture, sometimes you just want to scream," exclaims retired head teacher Katie Jacques. Sitting in the living room of her home in the suburbs of Leeds, the 69-year-old grandmother describes the dull drone she says is making her life a misery (BBC News Reports).

Most visitors hear nothing, but to Katie the noise is painful, vivid and constant. "It has a rhythm to it - it goes up and down. It sounds almost like a diesel car idling in the distance and you want to go and ask somebody to switch the engine off - and you can't." Katie says she no longer has any quiet moments and getting a good night's sleep has become impossible. "It's worst at night. It's hard to get off to sleep because I hear this throbbing sound in the background and you know what it's like when you can't get to sleep and you're tossing and turning and you get more and more agitated about it." Katie first became aware of the maddening rumble two years ago. She turned everything electrical off at the mains, but that made no difference. Neither did her efforts to block out the sound with ear plugs, or smother it with music.

Neighbours are unaffected and tests by environmental health officials have drawn a blank. Checks on Katie's ears ruled out tinnitus, a ringing noise that generally follows the sufferer wherever they go. Katie, like most victims of the hum, only hears the noise at a specific location - in her case, at home. Elsewhere, her hearing is fine. Moving out is an option she's considered, but she's reluctant to leave the house she's lived in for nearly 50 years. "My children grew up here, they still live nearby, so do my grandchildren. I have lots of friends here. I don't want to move, but I have thought I may have to if I can't find out what's causing it."

We at Dragonfly Acoustics have received a number of reports of such "Hums" and have investigated. However never in any case have we been able to trace a source or even pick up any measurable noise level on a Sound Level Meter........