Science: March 2017

Drums:

When you think of a drum, what image does it bring to mind? A rock band? A marching band? Many of us are unaware of the history behind this amazing instrument, and that it has been used for communication for hundreds of years.

1. Drums are used for communicating over long distances

Africans and Europeans developed a wireless communication system long before cell phones were invented! In a time and place where roads didn’t exist, men went into deep in the forest to hunt and women walked long distances to gardens. They needed a way to be informed if something went wrong in town. Drums were used to send detailed messages from village to village much faster then a person could walk or ride a horse. The sound of talking drums could reach up to 4 to 5 miles. These drums have hollow chambers and long, narrow openings that resonate when they are struck. They are made out of hollow logs. The larger the log, the louder the sound would be. The drummer would communicate through phrases and pauses, and low tones referred to males while high tones referred to females. Some have called this a way to gossip, or learn information through the grapevine.

2. Drums are used for slave communication and entertainment

As we all know, music can make any work much more fun to do as it energizes the workers. It the past, as hunters and gatherers were transitioning into seeders and harvesters, the drums made the boring and repetitive work fun instead of boring. It would help them to past the time playfully.

Drum rhythms are also a type of code. During the slave trades, drums were banned because the slaves were communicating to each other over long distances using a code their owners couldn’t understand.

Drums mimic the tone of human speech

The “talking drum” is an hourglass shaped drum from West Africa. The pitches that come from this drum can mimic the tone of human speech. It has two drumheads that are connected by leather tension cords. When the chords are squeezed, it changes the pitch of the drum. The leather cords are held under the arm of the player and squeezed while they play. The drum can capture pitch, volume, and rhythm of human speech.

Silbo gomero: A whistling language revived

There are no certainties about its origins. It is known that when the first European settlers arrived at La Gomera (Canary Islands- Spain) in the 15th Century, the inhabitants of the island - of North African origin - communicated with whistles.

These whistles reproduced the indigenous language. With the arrival of the Spanish, the locals adapted the whistling language to Spanish.

So the most likely theory is that the whistle came with the settlers from Africa, where there are records of other whistled languages.

Some locals recall its widespread use in the 1940s and 50s.

"In the old days, when the mountain caught fire, something that happens quite frequently in the island, the Guardia Civil came to pick us up," says Lino Rodriguez, an old whistler.

"And no matter what we were doing, they put us in a truck and drove us to put out the fire.

"So, to avoid them, we passed a message between us whistling: 'You have to hide, the Guardia Civil is coming!' And because they didn't whistle, they didn't understand what we were saying and couldn't find us."

"The thing is that here, learning to whistle wasn't a matter of pleasure. It was an obligation, a necessity. If you didn't know how to do it, you would have to walk to give a message. And as the houses are far from each other, and there were no roads or phones, whistling was easier than walking," he says.

Watch the video and read the full article on the site below.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20953138

What is Morse Code?

LOL! BFF! IDK! Think about how convenient it is to send a text message. With the typing of a few letters on a mobile device, you can send a message for someone else to read. Well, long before there were cell phones and text messages, there were telegraphs and Morse code.

Morse code is a communication system that represents the alphabet and numbers with a series of dots, dashes or a combination of both. The dots are the short sounds and are also known as dits. The dashes are the long sounds and are also known as dahs. Because you can also tap out the dots and dashes, Morse code can be both seen and heard.

Can you guess who created Morse code? His name was Samuel Morse (go figure) and he created the code in the 1830s in response to the invention of the telegraph, which he also created. The telegraph was a machine that sent and received messages by sending electric currents on a wire. By using a series of electrical pulses, short bursts of electric energy, the telegraph could then make marks on a piece of paper. But, those marks would not mean anything without a code - thus, Morse code was born.

By 1866, a telegraph line was placed from Europe to the United States in order to be able to send Morse code messages across the Atlantic Ocean. Morse code became a key form of communication in the military. Remember that Morse code can be heard OR seen? Sometimes, soldiers would send the code visually by moving a spotlight up and down to represent the different letters.