This effect was first discovered back in 1836 by physicist Michael Faraday, and it works in a similar way to noise-cancelling headphones, which block out noise by emitting the opposite wavelengths of sound.
Advertisement
A pub in Hove on the south coast of England has come up with a novel way to differentiate itself from the local competition – erecting a metal cage around it to block phone signals and make it a phone-free space.
It may seem like a novel idea in the age of smartphones and social media, but Brit Steve Tyler wants visitors to his new bar on England’s south coast to actually chat with one another when they’re sitting enjoying a drink.
“So rather than asking them not to use their phones, I stopped the phones working”.
We’ve all been in a bar and bemoaned the surrounding tables of people who are more interested in their Facebook feed, than the friend sitting opposite them.
The system was easy to install. He realized that he had “quite a lot of copper mesh” lying around, and that this might be his ticket. He added that although “it’s not the flawless system, not military grade”, it’s able to block most mobile phone signals in the bar, causing patrons to once again look at one another instead of at a brightly lit display in their hand.
“The Americans are still listening”. They can be used to dial patrons at neighboring tables or the bar for another round.
“I’ve seen it progressively get worse and worse and I thought, ‘I want to stop this, ‘” the landlord was quoted as saying.
The law on blocking phones is now unclear.
The Wireless Telegraph Act 2006 states that “the use of any apparatus, whether or not wireless telegraphy apparatus, for the goal of interfering with any wireless telegraphy, is an offence”.
That certainly includes electronic jamming devices (which the Gin Tub isn’t using), since those interfere with communications over a wide area, and could disrupt emergency services.
Tyler constructed his Faraday cage the way any good technophobe would: out of foil (and some copper mesh). Tyler told the UK’s Sky News, “A Faraday cage is a tin box that prevents signals from coming in”.
“The Faraday cage is sitting on the edge of what is legal and what is not”.
Advertisement
“I understand some restaurants use it and some don’t in certain areas”. It’s debatable whether that’s illegal or not.
