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A cracking good mystery

Socratease

New Blood
S
Joined
Jan 12, 2005
Messages
19
This is about the only 'paranormal' thing that has ever happened to me. 'Paranormal' in the sense that I can think of nothing normal to explain it, so I'm hoping some of you knowledgeable gentlemen or ladies with engineering and scientific backgrounds can clue me in.

Yesterday morning I am sitting at the 'puter, having my breakfast and reading mail when there is an extraordinarily loud crack! behind me. Loud enough for me to jump in my chair, swing around with a 'What the f...?!' It sounded very much like either a firecracker or the kind of sound you hear with a very major electrical fault - sharp and almost metallic. So I swing around expecting to see smoke coming from somewhere, but - nothing. The TV is still going, the computer is still going, as is everything else plugged into an outlet. It also could have been something falling onto the floor tiles, but there was nothing there. I searched through the whole flat looking for a source
and I am rather perplexed.

The wierd thing is that the same thing has happened at least once both to my sister and her daughter, my niece. Both have severe problems with static electricity. I have some minor problems with it, but only when wearing synthetic clothes. I bring this up, as this seems to be the only 'invisible' thing that could be a possible cause, but I can't imagine conditions that static electricity could build up so much to create such a powerful discharge.

Now I realise there are lots of variables and questions needing to be asked about where I live but up front I will just say that it is a normal brick flat, one of four, with no unusual equipment in the lounge.

Any ideas?

Tony
 
Hi, Tony. Welcome to JREF!

A couple of ideas come to mind:

1) Could it be the building settling? Our house does this every so often, despite the fact that it is over 40 years old. It is a sharp "Crack!", not really metallic, but not a thud either. Sort of like a dry twig breaking, scaled up to something much larger. I hope that description is understandable.

2) You mentioned that the TV was behind you. We used to have a TV back in the '80s that would make a huge crack every so often. I always figured it was static electricity discharging somewhere inside. The TV continued to work fine, and I never had the problem investigated.

I should tell you that I'm not an expert in either case, so treat my suggestions accordingly.

Good luck! Don't let it spook you!

βPer
 
I have a TV that occasionally scares me silly by making the loudest BANG! every now and again, usually a little while after it's been switched off and started to cool down. I can only conclude it's possessed.

On the same topic I had a monitor that used to make a horrendous thump every tiime I changed resolutions on it, sounding something like a solenoid being thrown. One day it got stuck while changing modes, rattling like a bad camshaft until suddenly the rear of the monitor erupted in a huge shower of sparks and all went quiet. I fell backwards onto my ass like I'd been shot.
 
The building usually settles at night, and it is more bumps and creaks. This was first thing in the morning. I tried to reproduce the sound while explaining it to neighbours, and a very loud hand clap or slapping my sandals on tiles with considerable force came close.

The TV was on, but never skipped a beat. My first thought was some sort of discharge, but I can't imagine any appliance making such a horrendous sound without leaving some evidence, either a blackened outlet or some sort of odor. And there was no evidence of anything of that sort.

Perhaps someone with an electical background could offer a few theories.

btw I'm not spooked, just perplexed. But I have no doubt there is a reasonable, if not immediately obvious, answer.

Tony
 
You said that you thought it came from behind you. What's there, located close enough that it could sound loud? Inverse square law, snap your fingers next to your ear it sounds as loud as the hog pulling out from Big Tiny's Biker Bar a block away.
Maybe two blocks.
Another thing is that humans are not good at localizing a sound source in enclosed spaces with echos.
 
TV's and indeed tube-type computer monitors will indeed go >crack!< from time to time for no apparent reason. Mine here does about once per week - not VERY loud, but like slapping a brick with a shoe.

My own notion is that it is dust settling in HT wiring somewhere which is sparking. Dust accumulates electrostatically, and it absorbs water really well and becomes partially conductive as a result. This collects more dust. After a while it gets close enough to spark across some high tension points, which causes the dust to heat and disperse. Or else it makes the whole thing spitzensparken and lets the all-important smoke out. :)
 
The sound was behind and to my right, in the open dining/living area. It's only a small flat, plaster walls, and no echo. It did come from the general direction of the TV, and the dust/discharge theory sounds plausible. It was just the volume of the sound that gives me some misgivings. It had some considerable force or power behind it.

It might be a mistake comparing it to the similar experiences of my family, but they did feel it was exactly the same noise as I described. And my niece had it happen when she just moved in to her house, and it was completely empty.

Seems we might be circling the solution, but haven't cornered it yet. :)

Tony
 
Hi, there -

Unless you have a flat screen plasma or lcd TV, you have a regular "tube" TV. The images displayed on your screen come from an "electron gun", which is a high-voltage item and is backed by some pretty hefty capacitors.

While on, the surface of the screen will become strongly charged with static electricity - one reason why they get so dusty. The gun itself is high voltage; it's entirely possible that the cracking sound you hear is a discharge within the TV itself (perhaps the capacitors) or some kind of static discharge from the screen.

You said your sister and niece have severe problems with static electricity (I assume in your home). You may have some enviromental factor that encourages the buildup of static electricity - perhaps the air is very dry, or perhaps you have a type of carpet that is conducive to static, etc.

See if you can get a handle on the frequency of the occurrance; then unplug the TV completely and see if it continues or not. :)
 
You heard a sound you were unfamiliar with, and you were unable to ascertain its origin. A fairly common occurence around the wide world. There is no reason whatsoever to assign suspicion of a paranormal cause.
 
I'm actually looking for a 'normal' answer. It might be 'paranormal' in the sense that it doesn't happen very often, but I have no metaphysical designs whatsoever. Having said that, it happens that I am in the process of writing a novel about a skeptical paranormal investigator, so perhaps I have angered the spirits because my character is always debunking them. :)

I live in sub-sub tropical Queensland and it is usually a very dry heat. We are having a warm spring at the moment, gearing up for a very hot summer. I don't know whether this would exacerbate any static electricity problems.

When the same thing happened to my sister, she was in another part of the house and came to the kitchen/lounge to investigate but found nothing. (She doesn't live with me.)

When it happened to my niece (once again an entirely different house) she was in the process of moving in and the house was completely empty.

Tony
 
Socratease said:
I live in sub-sub tropical Queensland and it is usually a very dry heat. We are having a warm spring at the moment, gearing up for a very hot summer. I don't know whether this would exacerbate any static electricity problems.
Click to expand...
FNQ or SEQ?
 
Using my remote viewing powers, I can easily see that your dining table has a solid wood top. The energy in the wood attracts poltergeists.

Here in southern California, we get windy dry spells called Santa Ana winds, from the Spanish for "Devils Wind". Humidity drops to single digits overnight, with strong winds down from the mountains. Being a professional furniture maker, I was curious about the effects of the dryness on wood. So, I kept a cross grain cut off of Ash, 22 inches 'wide'. One day at 5 PM, it was 22 3/8 wide, next morning it had shrunk to 22 1/16. That kind of shrinkage neccesitates building furniture in such a way as to allow for movement. What you have been hearing is the parts of your table moving in fits and jerks as the top shrinks...or expands. It's not the dryness per say, but the moisture changes that cause this. It could cause 'poltergeist' kinds of things like water spilled from a vase....or the wood can have so much 'quantum energy' that it might actually split, allowing the ectoplasm to escape....( ectoplasm looks just like tree sap).

Let me know if I qualify for Randi's $1,000,000.....
 
Socratease said:
I'm actually looking for a 'normal' answer. It might be 'paranormal' in the sense that it doesn't happen very often, but I have no metaphysical designs whatsoever. Having said that, it happens that I am in the process of writing a novel about a skeptical paranormal investigator, so perhaps I have angered the spirits because my character is always debunking them. :)

I live in sub-sub tropical Queensland and it is usually a very dry heat. We are having a warm spring at the moment, gearing up for a very hot summer. I don't know whether this would exacerbate any static electricity problems.

When the same thing happened to my sister, she was in another part of the house and came to the kitchen/lounge to investigate but found nothing. (She doesn't live with me.)

When it happened to my niece (once again an entirely different house) she was in the process of moving in and the house was completely empty.

Tony
Click to expand...

Hm... a bit puzzling about your niece and sister; but it's impossible ,of course, to ensure that they heard what you heard. However, dryness has a distinct impact on the buildup of static; in the winter when building's use heat, static can become a real issue because most building heaters dry out the air in the building.

So I'd say that between the possiblity of wood changing size and/or static buildup, you've got two good normal leads for this. Here's a thought - put a humidifier in the room where you hear the noise and see if that makes it better. :)
 
I am in Bundaberg, rum capital of Ozstralia. :)

Alas, I don't have a dining table. I'm a dinner-in-front-of-the-TV person. I have some wooden furniture, but can't see it making such a loud noise. There would obviously be wood in the room frame, but the sound seemed to come from within the room, rather than the walls or roof.

Tony
 
Socratease said:
Alas, I don't have a dining table. I'm a dinner-in-front-of-the-TV person. I have some wooden furniture, but can't see it making such a loud noise. There would obviously be wood in the room frame, but the sound seemed to come from within the room, rather than the walls or roof.

Tony
Click to expand...

Tv tray? End table? Wooden floor (do you eat food that falls on the floor?).....everybody knows a dead guy whose name begins with a "J"!.....cabinet with raised panel door? or a solid top?....I feel love in that relationship....box of toothpicks?...how about a box of pencils?

But really, the wood doesn't have to be all that large, maybe 25 cm across the grain? but it needs to be real wood, not ply wood or particle board covered in veneer....everybody knows a dead guy whose name begins with a "J".....or do I mean 'M'?
 
I heard a huge bang in my house once - shook the whole damn place. I thought maybe it had been in the garage, so I went out and looked. All was quiet, but I did see a smallish cloud of reddish looking something.

IT WAS AN IRISH GHOST!:)

Actually, I figured out that one of the springs that opens my garage door had snapped. I'm glad I wasn't in the garage when that happened, it may've blown out my ear drum.
 
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