Geiger Chimes

11 Feb 2020
Progress: Concept

Geiger Chimes are wind chimes, except instead of being agitated by the wind, they are agitated by ionising radiation.

Each metal tube contains a radiation detector wired directly to a solenoid, arranged to strike the inside, linking the famously unpredictable (and cryptographically random) events to audible, musical tones.

While "Geiger Chimes" makes for a better name, it may be more practical to use more sensitive scintillation detectors, since one of the features of Geiger Chimes depends on the energy level of incoming particles. Using filter windows of different thicknesses and materials, each tube is calibrated to ring only at a certain range of energy levels, from low notes at the low keV values through to the highest pitch, smallest tubes only ringing at the GeV end of the scale.

Since the tubes no longer need to sit next to each other, they can be hung vertically in groups of two or three. In the event of a muon (cosmic ray) the coincidence detection will resonate as a musical chord.