Why is my Sondhauss tube not producing any sound?

[cyberdiver]

I've been trying to make a Sondhauss tube lately. My setup is a 17-cm long Pyrex test tube with a small piece of steel wool as the stack. I've been holding the closed end over a gas stove on full heat with a pipe wrench, but absolutely no sound is produced. What I am doing seems to be no different from other demonstrations online, so why is this so?

 

[sophiecentaur]

That question takes me back. I remember trying this nearly twenty years ago, using a steel tube (probably 30mm bore) with a wire gauze plug inside it. It was never very successful but it sometimes produced a short lived groaning noise, I seem to remember. I used gauze and not steel wool ( I thought that was supposed to be important) and the tube was about a half metre long - or more. I did find that the actual position of the plug in the tube was very relevant to performance (what there was of it).