The device, called the Mosquito ("It's small and annoying," Stapleton said), emits a high-frequency pulsing sound that, he said, can be heard by most people younger than 20 and almost no one older than 30. The sound is designed to so irritate young people that after several minutes, they cannot stand it and go away.When I was a lad, there was a department store that we visited regularly that had some sort of device on the ceiling just above the escalators. No idea what it was for, but it emitted a steady, loud, very high frequency tone that was physically unpleasant to be around for all us young'uns. We'd complain about it regularly, but my parents couldn't hear a thing. (Or so they said — probably trying to gaslight us.)
A trip to Spar here in Barry confirmed the strange truth of the phenomenon. The Mosquito is positioned just outside the door. Although this reporter could not hear anything, being too old, several young people attested to the fact that yes, there was a noise, and yes, it was extremely annoying.Hmmm.... I think we should place a dozen around the perimeter as soon as A. goes off to college...
Don't you have to be an old fart to know the "gaslight" reference?
The first mention of that movie I ever saw was on an old Lucy episode -- I think. A little Googling doesn't turn up anything like what I remember. I remember that Lucy and Ethel (or whoever) had some sort of problem, and just as they were wondering what to do, Gaslight came on the TV, and they decided they would "gaslight" someone into solving their problem for them. They sat down to watch the movie and take notes.
I saw this when I was a child, and remember thinking that this was an ancient episode, and the characters referred to Gaslight as an "old" movie. I believe this qualifies as second-hand old-farthood, like when you reference something from a Looney Toons cartoon that turns out to be an advertising slogan from your grandparents' youth.
Posted by: Angie Schultz on November 30, 2005 10:13 AM
That device over the escalators was most likely part of a acoustic motion-detection alarm system. When I was younger and still had that part of my hearing, I worked at a couple of places with those, and had to ask the manager to turn it off while the store was open--normally, they'd just turn off the alarm setting and leave the transducers going.
Nowadays they use infrared in most alarm systems, so this isn't a problem anymore, unless you're a rattlesnake or pit viper.
Posted by: Dave Trowbridge on November 30, 2005 12:32 PM
Don't you have to be an old fart to know the "gaslight" reference?Probably. I often think I was born an old fart – I'm pretty sure I'm there now.
Dave – interesting; I always wondered what they were. After I reached rock-concert-going age, I don't think they troubled me any more.
Posted by: David Fleck on November 30, 2005 08:15 PM