The machine noises
Overnight recordings of beeping, grinding, and flushing – with surprising test results
The machine noises
Noises were recorded that sounded like some sort of machine running overnight.
These noises seemed to be coming from 22 College Street.
The recordings captured distinct, constant sounds of machinery operating around the clock.
I have recordings of these noises.
The noises include a series of beeps, always in sequences of three beeps followed by a single or a double beep.
The noises which really need listening to in context can be heard in these three short extracts:
- The samples I tested were a waste product.
- Perhaps the steel wool affected the results.
- There could be other residue in the pipe.
The bleeping noise.
The grinding noise.
The flushing noise.
Liquid could be heard being flushed into a drain; in one recording, the flushing noise can be heard every hour over a twenty‑hour period.
The property had been renovated, and offered for lease.
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The drain that the liquid was flushing into was only connected to 22 College Street.
I pushed some steel wool into the neck of the pipe to see if I could catch anything that I could test.
I tested the material that was caught on the steel wool with a reagent test and it tested positive for MDMA.
However, the reading might be incorrect for several reasons:
Two later tests also tested positive for MDMA.
A gully was made that connected the two downpipes from the roof of the property next door to that drain.
There are two separate drainage points in the alleyway; previously the two downpipes had directed rainwater into the two separate drains.
In one recording made around Christmas time, one man can be heard talking to another with various machine noises in between.
They are speaking in Vietnamese; one man seems to be instructing the other.
The Vietnamese recording.
6 longer recordings that contain the noises.
I suspect that there are three separate machines that make the beeping noises based on the differing volumes on the recordings.