The Singing Roads of Japan

In 1899, Charles H. Duell, Commissioner of the U.S. patent office, was famously quoted saying that “Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

Evidently the Japanese didn’t get the memo. And you have to hand it to them – they certainly have no shortage of innovation. Their latest project – “The Melody Road” – is interesting to say the least. One wonders if these kinds of inane projects are tax-payer funded.

According to Techeblog:

…the ‘melody road’, can be seen above and the grooves are between 6 and 12mm apart: the narrower the interval, the higher the pitch. these stretches of road, each playing a different tune, can currently be found in 3 places in japan – hokkaido, wakayama and gunma – with the optimum musical speed being a depressingly slow 28mph

Here’s a glimpse of the road “in action”: