I see this (click here) every time I go to the local playground… It sticks up out of the ground and looks like it would be a shower of sorts - but that can’t be it. There’s two of them on different parts of the playground. Anyone know?
It is a voice tube. Kids can talk to eachother across the playground through it.
I thought that might be it, so I had tried talking on one end with a friend on the other - but you couldn’t hear anything on the other end. :\
In my experience these things only actually work about half the time. My guess is the underground tubes break and get filled with water, earth, or tree roots or something and so don’t conduct sound anymore.
Whisper Dishes are alot cooler. You have two of them about 50-100 yards apart. One person whispers (at about the volume that you would to someone sitting just a foot or two away from you) into one of them, and someone at the other end can hear them very clearly.
It just wsn’t time to tell the Teletubbies it was time to go home.
Believe it or not naval vessels are still outfitted with voice tubes like those. On my ship there was one outside above the bridge that pointed at the helmsman’s ear, so he could receive orders from an officer who was getting a better view of things. Of course…we used to drop M&M’s on his head through it…
Looks like a chemical warfare device. Don’t get too near it.
There’s a pair of those at a playgrond in my town. I’m certain some little heathen(s) managed to get enough sand into the pipe so that it no longer works.
[Speaker rises up]
Crrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Clang!
*“Time for Teletubbies”…
“Time for Teletubbies”…*
… The things that get stuck in your head when taking care of a little niece.