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Code Number: 3D30.50
Demo Title: Ruben's Tube
Condition: Excellent
Principle: Resonance in Pipes, Standing Waves in a Tube
Area of Study: Oscillations & Acoustics
Equipment:
Ruben's Tube, Wave Generator, and Grill Lighter.
Procedure:
Connect the Ruben's tube to the gas supply and light along the outlet holes when the gas is turned on. Adjust the gas flow so that the flames are about 1/2 inch high. Turn on the wave generator and adjust the frequency to the resonant frequencies of the tube (these are written on the tube itself). Up to 8 wavelengths can be easily seen.
The Ruben's tube can also be run off of propane for those classrooms that do not have natural gas available. Several 1 lb propane canisters are available for this option. You may also have to swap the connecting hoses. All these accessories are in the Ruben's Tube Accessories toolbox.
Note that if you run the Ruben's tube for extended periods of time on propane, you will need to use two propane canisters so that you can maintain the proper flame height. The reason for this is that the canisters cool down due to adiabatic expansion as you use them. When the canisters get cold enough, the liquid propane will not vaporize fast enough to keep the Ruben's tube optimally operating if using only one canister.
References:
- Praveen Pathak, Mamatha Ramanjineyulu Maddur, Arnab Bhattacharya, "Investigating Resonance in Paper Pipes and a Flameless Rubens Tube with a Smartphone", TPT, Vol. 63, #7, Oct. 2025, p. 587.
- James Lincoln, "The Lincoln's Tube: A New Apparatus for Demonstrating Sound Standing Waves", TPT, Vol. 58, #1, Jan. 2020, p. 74.
- Cameron T. Vongsawad, Mark L. Berardi, Tracianne B. Neilsen, Kent L. Gee, Jennifer K. Whiting, and M. Jeannette Lawler, "Acoustics for the Deaf: Can You See Me Now?", TPT, Vol. 54, #6, Sept. 2016, p. 369.
- George W. Ficken and Francis C. Stephenson, "Rubens Flame-Tube Demonstration", TPT, Vol. 17, #5, May 1979, p. 306.
- Robert P. Bauman and Dennis Moore, "More on Dancing Flames", TPT, Vol. 15, #7, Oct. 1977, p. 389, 448.
- Thomas D. Rossing, "Average Pressure in Standing Waves", TPT, Vol. 15, #5, May 1977, p. 260.
- Harold A. Daw, "The Normal Mode Structure on the Two-Dimensional Flame Table", AJP, Vol. 56, #10, Oct. 1988, p. 913.
- Harold A. Daw, "A Two-Dimensional Flame Table", AJP, Vol. 55, #8, Aug. 1987, p. 733.
- George F. Spagna Jr., "Comment on 'Demonstration of Longitudinal Standing Waves in a Pipe Revisted' [Am. J. Phys. 53, 1110 (1985)]", AJP, Vol. 54, #12, Dec. 1986, p. 1146.
- George Ficken and Francis Stephenson, "Comment on the Rubens Flame Tube", AJP, Vol. 54, #4, Apr. 1986, p. 297.
- Duan Jihui and Charles T. P. Wang, "Demonstration of Longitudinal Standing Waves in a Pipe Revisited", AJP, Vol. 53, #11, Nov. 1985, p. 1110.
- George Spagna, "Erratum: 'Rubens Flame Tube Demonstration: A Closer Look at the Flames' [Am. J. Phys. 51, 848-850 (1983)]", AJP, Vol. 52, #1, Jan. 1984, p. 84.
- George F. Spagna Jr., "Rubens Flame Tube Demonstration: A Closer Look at the Flames", AJP, Vol. 51, #9, Sept. 1983, p. 848.
- D. Rae Carpenter Jr. and Richard B. Minnix, "W-225. Gas Flames Tube", DICK and RAE Physics Demo Notebook, 1993.
- R. W. Pohl, Physical Principles of Mechanics and Acoustics, p. 250.
- Michael D. Gardner, Kent L. Gee, Gordon Dix, "An Investigation of Rubens Flame Tube Resonances", J. Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 125, 2009, p. 1285.
- Borislaw Bilash II and David Maiullo, "Seeing Sound", A Demo a Day: A Year of Physics Demonstrations, p. 212.
- Julien Clinton Sprott, "3.6, Flame Pipe", Physics Demonstrations a Sourcebook for Teachers, p. 152.
- Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations, "Ring of Fire", https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/ring-fire, 05/22/19.
Harvard Natural Sciences Lecture Demonstrations: Ring of Fire
Jean-Francois Charles Composition - Montagne Pelée, for solo baritone saxophone - Kenneth Tse Saxophone & Univ. of Iowa Ruben's tube. Faculty Lecture Recital: 5/2 How Polarity Yields Five Codes of Music - A Syzygy with S/Z. Presentation 1: From Polarity to Plurality. Monday Oct. 6th, 2025, Voxman Music Building Stark Opera Studio. Audio Transcript is below this movie.
Matthew Arndt:
Our last piece features another kind of Sonic science from Professor Charles, who, with the assistance of Dale Stille from the Physics department, has enabled Professor Kenneth Tse on saxophone to process sound, not as other sound, but as fire.
Here to tell us a little about the origins and physics of the piece is Professor Frederick N. Skiff, an expert on plasma physics, optics, and photonics.
During the piece, we will shut off the lights in order to observe the fire.
Fred Skiff:
Good evening.
Yeah, this piece came out of an Oberman Center summer research project in 2023 and Jean Francois and together with myself in physics and also Professor Al Ratner in mechanical engineering, we did some exploration of interaction of sound and of flames and of ionized gas, plasma, which is my and there's actually a tremendous range of interesting phenomena tonight.
We'll see just to just one of the of the things that we played with during that time.
Now the inspiration for this piece actually is also an event that was somewhat catastrophic.
In fact, it's called La Catastroph in Martinique.
It was a volcanic explosion in 19O2 in Mount Pelée .
And much as when it happened in ancient times and also in, Mount Saint Helens, they had some warning signs which they didn't notice or didn't know how to interpret really.
And what there was a huge pyroclastic explosion. And this is an explosion of such heat and temperature. You have flame, plasma, and sound.
And it tragically incinerated 30,000 people and the entire town there at the foot of Mount Pelée.
And when Mount Saint Helens exploded in 1980, fortunately knowledge gained from what happened on Pelée enabled them to have much lesser loss of life.
The instrumentation here is rather there's just an amplifier.
And this device is called a Rubens tube.
And it's a little bit like an organ pipe, but it wouldn't be very good as an organ pipe because it's closed at both ends.
But it's a little bit like the cross between an organ pipe and a outdoor gas grill.
There are flames which will be mapped across the top of the tube and much like it as in an organ pipe, modes are excited in the tube.
And so, although it's a very challenging piece because the saxophonist must play do multi phonics, in other words, make sound in more than one way in the instrument, but then that will enable him to excite modes simultaneously a number of modes and make flames dance.
So, without further ado.