The Taos Hum - 1996

The Hum is a phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people. Hums have been widely reported by national media in the UK and the United States.The Hum is sometimes prefixed with the name of a locality where the problem has been particularly publicized: e.g., the "Bristol Hum", the "Taos Hum", or the "Bondi Hum".Data from a Taos Hum study suggests that a minimum of two percent and perhaps as many as 11 percent of the population could detect the Taos Hum and the Daily Telegraph in 1996 likewise reported a figure of two percent of people hearing the Bristol Hum. For those who can hear the Hum it can be a very disturbing phenomenon and it has been linked to at least three suicides in the UK. However, amongst those who cannot hear the hum and some specialists, there has been skepticism about whether it, in fact, exists.

The essential element that defines the Hum is what is perceived as a persistent low-frequency sound, often described as being comparable to that of a distant diesel engine idling, or to some similar low-pitched sound for which obvious sources (e.g., household appliances, traffic noise, etc.) have been ruled out. There are a number of audio reproductions of the Hum available on the web.

Other elements seem to be significantly associated with the Hum, being reported by an important proportion of hearers, but not by all of them. Some people hear the Hum only, or much more, inside buildings as compared with outdoors. Some perceive vibrations that can be felt through the body. Earplugs are reported as not decreasing the Hum.

The Daily Telegraph reported that two percent of people could hear the Bristol Hum. Research into the Taos Hum indicated that between two percent and 11 percent of people could hear the hum, with the actual figure likely being at the lower end of the range. The hum does appear to be geographically focused, i.e. it does appear to be possible for hearers to move away from it; the range of the Taos Hum was reported to be 48 km to 72 km. Women may be more likely to be affected than men. Age does appear to be a factor, with older people being more likely to hear it.

On November 15, 2006, Dr. Tom Moir of the Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand made a recording of the Auckland Hum and has published it on the university's website. The captured Hum's power spectral density peaks at a frequency of 56 hertz. The Taos Hum was between 40 to 80 hertz. Higher-pitched tones have also been reported; the Hueytown (Alabama) Hum has been compared to the sound made by a dentist’s drill or fluorescent light bulb near the end of its life.In 2009, the head of audiology at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, Dr David Baguley, said that he believed people's problems with hum were based on the physical world about one-third of the time and the other two-thirds stemmed from people focusing too keenly on innocuous background sounds.This sound can be heard from various places around the Western continents but the source is unknown.

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