[TWIAR] Fw: Sonic device protects Nissan inventory from hail, annoys neighbors, God.

[Greg Williams]

Generator detects conditions, fires sonic waves to disrupt formation of
hailstones

By Josee Valcourt / The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger


Nissan Motor Co. incurs millions of dollars a year in hail damage to new
cars parked outdoors. So when it looked like hail this week at its Canton,
Miss., plant, the factory fired sonic booms into the air to break up the
hail before it could reach the ground.

Nissan says it's the first automaker in the United States to use the
hail-protection generator, which has been used by farmers to protect crops
for more than a decade.

The machine is designed to protect the fleet of new vehicles placed daily in
the shipping yard, said Wendy Polk, a spokeswoman for Nissan.

"Over the past years, Nissan has incurred literally millions of dollars from
hail damage. At any moment we can have several thousand vehicles in our
shipping yard," she said. "This is a way to protect our investment by
preventing damage to vehicles ready to be shipped."

The hail protection generator detects when conditions make hail possible. It
automatically fires sonic waves into the atmosphere, disrupting the
formation of hailstones within a one-mile radius.

"The sonic waves continue every five seconds until the weather condition has
changed," said Polk, who would not release the cost of the machine.

"We could hear the sound all morning," said Gale Constable, owner of a
boathouse about eight miles from the plant. "It was so annoying."

Constable described it as a thumping sound that left her with a throbbing
headache.

The plant did not receive phone calls from residents inquiring about the
noise coming from the generator, Polk said, but the company plans to install
an abatement fence to deaden its booming sound.



Greg Williams
k4hsm@lock-net.com

Tis often better to be silent and thought a fool rather than to speak and
remove all doubt.
No trees were destroyed in the sending of this contaminant-free message
We do concede, a significant number of electrons may have been
inconvenienced.