Stormy conditions reportedly caused the Beetham Tower to hum for the second time this week, keeping city centre residents awake in the early hours.
We reported on Tuesday how city centre residents had been woken by the loud hum coming from the top of the 168m (551ft) tower. People used Twitter to report more humming overnight.
Loz Kaye (@lozkaye) tweeted: "Wow. #BeethamTower is howling loud tonight. I can hear it in my flat. #Manchester is now officially in a key of B."
Georgina Crosswell (@geemanc68) tweeted: "Three miles from city centre but can still just hear the #beethamtower whine. God knows what its like for those nearby."
Phil Burke (@philipburke1) told us: "It's been singing loudly in the wind all night, we could hear it on our car park all through the night at the Piccadilly Hotel."
This video was posted on Youtube by rjashton2 of the tower humming during the night (the sound can be heard from about 20 seconds into the clip)
The sound was recorded by Trevor Cox, Professor of Acoustic Engineering at the University of Salford, at 11pm last night and posted here.
Professor Cox has established that the resonance is at 240Hz. He said the Tower was playing: "about B below middle c for those who want to play along."
He added: "When you blow across the top of a beer bottle, the air moving across the edge creates a sound. The same thing is happening with the Beetham Tower, air moving across the edge of the fins on the top of the building create sound. (This is why an earlier temporary repair put foam across the edge of the fins, because this stopped the air making a sound.)
"The air movement then excites a resonance, probably of the air gaps between the fins, but the panels might also be flexing. The lattice work on top of building has the panels all spaced the same distance apart, and the resonance at 240Hz is caused by this periodicity."
Earlier this week, Paul Roelake recorded the tower making the noise on Tuesday morning and posted this video on Youtube:
Residents have complained about the sound since the 47-storey building opened in 2006.
The noise disrupted the filming of Coronation Street with crews having to wait for the sound to die down before resuming takes at the studios on Quay Street.
In 2006, foam pads were fitted to the glass to dampen the noise and aluminium nosing was added in September 2007 but that still failed to silence the noise.
Last January, more work was carried out to address the problem but the tower continues to emit the sound in high winds, and was recorded making the noise last month.
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the sound coming from the tower was shocking. Oh well was meant to be in work at 7 but with 2 hours sleep I can't seeme making it in. Night all
What do you expect them to do about it?
It must happen in every modern city in the world.
Get a grip people.
build some more i say
because don't you think it looks silly on its own
its getting silly now, its almost 6 years since this became and issue and council still have not made them fix it!
GET THE BLADES TAKEN DOWN! PROBLEM SORTED!
Are they sure it was the tower that was howling? Or a scattering of Utd fans crying themselves to sleep!?
Well thank god for the Beetham Tower is what I say.
What would have been the headlines for the MEN today had it not been for the tower I wonder???
Heard it in Chorlton last night, it was audible indoors.
fantastic tweets!
why does Beetham Tower have a harmonica anyway? What purpose does it serve?
Doesn't the architect who designed it occupy the whole top floor penthouse where those blades are? Wonder if he complains.
Is the Hilton not constantly handing out refunds for all the hotel guests who can't sleep?
So what - I could hear it howling outside my house
Heard the humming in Whalley Range! Thought is was my buddha chimes alarm on my phone. Cool.
I've been fielding angry e-mails and tweets from residents for days. I've asked Environmental Health to investigate and they're going to ensure that maintenance on the fin is being carried out.
I live right next to the bloodie thing and the noise is ridiculous (an I lived here before they started building in before anyone tells me to move!)
I just rang Manchester Council Noise Pollution Tel No. 0161 2344873 and they advised that all the hilton needs to do is put some covers on some posts and that will stop the noise however they have failed to do this!
"When you blow across the top of a beer bottle, the air moving across the edge creates a sound. The same thing is happening with the Beetham Tower, air moving across the edge of the fins on the top of the building create sound."
Is it the same? The sound you get from blowing across the top of a bottle is caused by the bottle acting as a Helmholtz resonator, essentially an acoustic version of a mass-spring system, or a electrical tuned circuit.
The acoustic system does not on the face of it appear to be the same with this tower humming.
(Yes, I got my electroacoustics degree from Salford University, too - albeit 20 years ago!)
Obviously, all you peope living in the city centre moved there to get away from any noise, live with it !!
Before you all worry too much about noise in the city centre, please be reassured that it was noisy everywhere last night, because of the wind.
disgrace knock it down ........
I live at the bottom of Liverpool street, just a few hundred yards from the Beetham. The recording from Youtube is obviously done with the window open, as I can hardly hear the hum with my double glazed windows shut. The roof tiles rattling and the wind gusting is drowning out the sound to be perfectly honest.
Oh to live in the city centre with all the we have people. L.O.V.L.
I'm going to complain about the birds and cows that wake me up every morning....
The council need to do more its Noise Nuisance. If someone was playing music or making any other kind of noise that could be heard three miles away they would have their equipment ceased. So why are the council not making them take the grid off the top which was only added to add the additional height to the building. Then again can the council make them take it down after they obviously granted them planning permission to put it up in the first place - ummmmmmh i wonder.