Inventor Creates “Mosquito” to Silence Teens

Howard Stapleton has stuck back against juvenile delinquents by giving obstreperous teens a taste of their own medicine. His invention, dubbed the “Mosquito,” doesn’t harm, lecture, incarcerate or engage in other ineffective methods. It does to teens what they have done to the world since the dawn of time – it annoys using noise. The twist is no one over 30 car hear it.

Mr. Stapleton, who lives in Wales, said the idea came to him when he was 12 and visited a factory in London with his dad. Some welding equipment was making a high-frequency noise that he couldn’t stand, but the workers there didn’t even hear it. Twenty seven years later, he claims to have created a device that emits a “high-frequency pulsing noise” that can readily be heard by the under-20s while those the far side of 30 don’t hear it. “It’s small and annoying” and relies, he says, on the simple fact that humans are less able to hear high frequency sounds as they age.

The device has had only one test, a convenience store in Barry, Wales, southwest of Cardiff. Robert Gough, who runs the shop, told the press that a crowd of teens used to hang out at the front, smoking, cussing, drinking and hassling customers. Mr. Stapleton gave him a “Mosquito” to try out, and the result was “as if someone had used anti-teenager spray around the entrance.” They even went in asking Mr. Gough to turn it off. No dice, “I told them it was to keep birds away because of the bird flu epidemic.”

Mr. Stapleton developed the device by experimenting on his own children (as any father of teenagers usually wants to do). He discovered that a pulsing sound is more irritating – which many car stereo systems prove each week-end evening, oddly driven by teens. Also, he managed to create the annoying effects at a 75 decibel level, which means the government doesn’t consider it noise pollution.

Mr. Stapleton said, “I didn't want to make it hurt. It just has to nag at them. It's very difficult to shoplift when you have your fingers in your ears.” The only downside is that such a position also makes it very difficult to listen to the sage advice of the middle-aged -- whose own lives are such vast pillars of exemplary brilliance, moral virtue and wisdom in action.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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