16-year-old Mexican student builds acoustic fire extinguisher, HN flags prior art
Ángela Karime Venegas Hernández's sound-wave device that snuffs flames in seconds draws praise and skepticism about originality online.
What to know
- A 16-year-old student's acoustic fire extinguisher uses 30 pulses-per-second sound to douse flames in five to eight seconds without water, chemicals, or residue.
- The device, 'Vortex Tech,' will represent Mexico at an international fair.
- Hacker News commenters point out acoustic fire suppression is a known but uncommercialized concept, citing prior research, a company called Sonic Fire Tech, and YouTube demos.
- Discussion centers on whether the invention is genuinely novel versus a well-executed rediscovery of existing physics.
The dispute Whether the invention represents genuine novelty or is a reinvention of a long-known, uncommercialized technique. · positions read across 22 posts and comments
Acoustic fire extinguishing is a known technique that has circulated for years without becoming a commercial product.
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“This seems to be a known technology but hasn't made it as a product.”
Animats · Hacker News ↗
The student's execution may still be more rigorous or original than existing amateur demonstrations.
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“I'll bet that high school girl's science was better than what's in that youtube (it doesn't set a very high bar)”
fsckboy · Hacker News ↗
This recalls similar improvised school science projects using simple physical effects to douse flames.
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“My partner and I rigged up a balloon to be popped by the candle, and the balloon pop blows out the candle. Probably not an original idea, but I don't think any other group in the class tried a similar approach.”
kevin_nisbet · Hacker News ↗
Ángela Karime Venegas Hernández 16-year-old inventor
How it unfolded 3 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlespostscomments
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Commenter suggests niche practical use despite lack of commercialization
A Hacker News user argued the technology, while known, hasn't become a product and might be useful for fixed-distance scenarios like grills or grain silos.
“It might have potential for very specific types of extinguishing, such as grills and grain silos, where the distance from extinguisher to trouble spot is fixed.”
— Animats -
Was looking for a video on this specific work, but only found this [1] where the English translation seems AI-generated. It reminded me of thermoacoustic refrigeration which I found cool (heh) when I had encountered it many years ago - where the compression and rarefaction of sound waves is used to pull out heat. The fire extinguisher seems to…
2 more of the top 3 · 19 posts in this stretch
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Infobae has more information (in Spanish) and a video demonstrating the fire extinguisher:
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This seems to be a known technology but hasn't made it as a product.[1] It might have potential for very specific types of extinguishing, such as grills and grain silos, where the distance from extinguisher to trouble spot is fixed.[1]
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Commenters note acoustic fire suppression is not a new concept
Hacker News users pointed to prior acoustic-extinguisher research, a commercial project called Sonic Fire Tech, and YouTube demonstrations of similar devices, questioning the claim of a wholly original invention.
“a search for "youtube acoustic fire extinguisher" indicates it has already been invented a few times by people all over the world…”
— nilslindemann -
> Ángela Karime Venegas Hernández is 16 years old and has an idea no one else had....meanwhile, some folks at George Mason University were doing this back in 2015[1]:> The fire extinguisher uses low-frequency sound waves to douse a blaze. Engineering seniors Viet Tran and Seth Robertson now hold a preliminary patent application for their…
1 more of the top 2 · 3 posts in this stretch
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Well, a search for "youtube acoustic fire extinguisher" indicates it has already been invented a few times by people all over the world. The most interesting video is
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Story spreads via Upsocl and reaches Hacker News front page
The Upsocl writeup was submitted to Hacker News and gained traction (98 points, 41 comments), with the item also picked up by an HN frontpage RSS feed and a Mastodon bot account.
“Vortex Tech…”
— Ángela Karime Venegas Hernández, student inventor · source -
background
Student unveils acoustic fire extinguisher built from speaker and battery — Ángela Karime Venegas Hernández assembled a 12-volt battery, frequency generator, and speaker emitting 30 pulses per second that pushes oxygen away from flames, extinguishing them in five to eight seconds; she tested it over 100 times on wood, liquids, grease, and electronics.
Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet
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first by HN Best, 13d ago · also HN Frontpage
What people are saying 16 voices from 1 site · best of 22 · verbatim
- Could an acoustic extinguisher of this type be scaled or commercialized for practical use (e.g., grills, silos, oil wells)?
- Did the student draw on existing acoustic fire-suppression research or products like Sonic Fire Tech?
- Sep 11
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That's the real test of a song. Electric fire extinguishers are a crutch, really.
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It's kinda a throw-away remark in the middle, but I thought it was really cool to realize that speakers produce an on-axis net-blow and an off-axis net-suck.
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I remember as a kid somewhat accidentally setting a garbage bin on fire before new year's, and successfully putting it out with one of those big cube firecrackers.
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> a speaker that emits 30 pulses per second. That vibration pushes oxygen away from the flamesIs that really what happens? Wouldn't the fire be surrounded by the same air?
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If she can get it mobile enough , so it can be transported by a drone - it could be forest fire fighting equipment. Bonuspoints if the energy to run it could be derived from the fire itself.
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This is really good. Firefighting foam is a terrible material, when entering groundwater, is a "forever" source of PFAS.
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The real advancement, not brute forcing mathematical equations like some company does and claims revolutionary breakthrough. How many ideas like this has come from AI companies' models?
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The article starts with a lie: Ángela Karime Venegas Hernández is 16 years old and has an idea no one else had.As others have mentioned it's not the first time.So, is the reporter willfully lying, or is so incompetent that couldn't even do a simple Google search? I don't know which is worse.
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Watching that dude is like watching a child doing science and then using AI to explain the result. If he makes someone curious enough to do experiments on their own it's still a win though.
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Prove you are a human to continue.No, I dont think I will. closes websiteCloudflare at the forefront of gatekeeping everything on the website
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I will not ask if she patented it, or if others had the idea before, or if it is ready to be productized.Just simply: it is great that young people, driven by personal curiosity, go and explore their ideas, find solutions to long-standing challenges.Billiant, keep inventing!
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Wow, must be the same school that keeps pumping out students who invent water powered cars and machines that turn plastic into gasoline. HN with another YouTube shorts tier front page submission.
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When an oil well goes off, high explosives can be used to extinguish it. Maybe this is the same principle.
- Sep 10
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I'll bet that high school girl's science was better than what's in that youtube (it doesn't set a very high bar)
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Oooh.. from the title I thought this was about an extinguisher for when your guitar catches fire. Makes more sense now
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Not exactly acoustic but reminds me of a high school science project we had one year, something along the lines of put out a candle with a contraption. My partner and I rigged up a balloon to be popped by the candle, and the balloon pop blows out the candle. Probably not an original idea, but I don't think any other group in the class tried a…