The hum is a sound that only, according to some estimates, two percent of people can hear. The scientific world has no known explanation for this noise. For some of the 2%, it sounds like an engine idling. For others, it sounds like a low-frequency rumble. But almost all of those who can hear it can agree on one thing: it is a persistent, maddening noise.
Since it was first reported in Bristol, England, in 1970, this elusive phenomenon has plagued thousands of people across the globe, slowly eroding their sanity. One of them is Steve Kohlhase, an industrial-facilities mechanical engineer living in Brookfield, Connecticut. In Garret Harkawik’s short documentary Doom Vibrations, Kohlhase describes the noise: “Your ears are ringing real bad. If it’s a bad day, it feels like your brain is being squeezed. It’s nauseating.” Kohlhase says his dog, too, seems to suffer from the noise; once Kohlhase started hearing it, the canine became lethargic, and has never recovered.
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“I think most people view the hum as a fringe belief,” Harkawik [stated], “because it’s so subjective—people say they hear something that most people can’t hear. But when you look at the vast number of people who say they hear it, it’s obvious that there’s something going on.”
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Sounds like a really bad case of tinnitus, but at a lower frequency.
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Maybe I hear it, maybe not. A few years ago I was hearing a very faint fan noise and I often feel the floor vibrating, which is probably the refrigerator running, but it's not, but it may be in another apartment.
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According to Wikipedia: Two hums have been linked to mechanical sources. The West Seattle Hum was traced to a vacuum pump used by CalPortland to offload cargo from ships. After CalPortland replaced the silencers on the machine, reports of the hum ceased.[22] Likewise, the Wellington Hum is thought to have been due to the diesel generator on a visiting ship.[23][24] A 35 Hz hum in Windsor, Ontario, is likely to have originated from a steelworks on the industrial zone of Zug Island near Detroit.[25]I wonder if they've looked into those possibilities. I remember hearing about the Seattle Hum. Researchers thought maybe it was due to the mating calls of midshipmen fish before tracing it to the vacuum pump.
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