{"id":8548,"date":"2016-08-06T04:38:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T12:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/at-this-english-bar-an-old-school-solution-to-rude-cellphones\/"},"modified":"2016-08-06T04:38:03","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T12:38:03","slug":"at-this-english-bar-an-old-school-solution-to-rude-cellphones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/at-this-english-bar-an-old-school-solution-to-rude-cellphones\/","title":{"rendered":"At This English Bar, An Old-School Solution To Rude Cellphones"},"content":{"rendered":"

By NPR Staff<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"Drinks<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n

Liam Norris\/Getty Images\/Cultura Exclusive<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

There was a time when people went to bars to talk to other people, maybe even meet someone new. But that was in the BC era \u2014 before cellphones.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been in the pub industry for a long time, and progressively it’s become less and less social and more and more antisocial,” Steve Tyler, the owner of the Gin Tub<\/a> in Sussex, England, tells NPR’s Scott Simon.<\/p>\n

And that’s bad for business. So Tyler wanted to bring back the conversation, and he did by turning his bar into a Faraday cage<\/a> \u2014 a 19th-century invention that reflects electromagnetic fields and conducts currents around, rather than inside, an enclosure.<\/p>\n

He installed copper wire mesh in the bar’s ceiling and tin foil on the walls, effectively blocking cell phone signals from getting into the establishment.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/div>\n
\n
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A woman sits in a Faraday cage that is struck by lightning that was produced by a large transformer the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Aug. 24, 2007. A Faraday cage is a 19th-century invention that reflects electromagnetic fields and conducts currents around, rather than inside, an enclosure. Fabian Bimmer\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Fabian Bimmer\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“It’s not military grade,” Tyler says, but “it does its job.”<\/p>\n

Tyler says that, because it doesn’t send a signal to jam phones, the setup is totally legal<\/a>. But just in case, the Gin Tub has a sign at its entrance that tells people exactly what they’re getting into: “No Wi-Fi, no signal, just friends.”<\/p>\n

A week in, Tyler says that people are loving the change.<\/p>\n

“I think I’ve hit a nerve in the world, that I think it’s rude, and I think society has accepted people on their phones in bars and in places where it’s socially unacceptable,” he says.<\/p>\n

He hasn’t seen sight of any imitators, but Tyler is confident that his approach \u2014 or at least the general idea \u2014 will win out.<\/p>\n

“I think this is gonna be the new way forward for restaurants and bars and clubs,” he says.<\/p>\n

Without phones in their hands, people are no longer drinking in silence but instead talking with each other. Tyler says that’s how bars were intended.<\/p>\n

“It’s like Cheers<\/em>, the TV program, when you walk in everyone knows your name,” Tyler says. “Well, there are no pubs now where everyone knows your name.”<\/p>\n

That is, except within the Faraday cage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Let’s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> (Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/alltechconsidered\/2016\/08\/06\/488864179\/at-this-english-bar-an-old-school-solution-to-rude-cellphones?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=business<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Drinks<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n

Liam Norris\/Getty Images\/Cultura Exclusive<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

There was a time when people went to bars to talk to other people, maybe even meet someone new. But that was in the BC era \u2014 before cellphones.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been in the pub industry for a long time, and progressively it’s become less and less social and more and more antisocial,” Steve Tyler, the owner of the Gin Tub<\/a> in Sussex, England, tells NPR’s Scott Simon.<\/p>\n

And that’s bad for business. So Tyler wanted to bring back the conversation, and he did by turning his bar into a Faraday cage<\/a> \u2014 a 19th-century invention that reflects electromagnetic fields and conducts currents around, rather than inside, an enclosure.<\/p>\n

He installed copper wire mesh in the bar’s ceiling and tin foil on the walls, effectively blocking cell phone signals from getting into the establishment.<\/p>\n

\n
\"A<\/div>\n
\n
\n

A woman sits in a Faraday cage that is struck by lightning that was produced by a large transformer the Phaeno Science Centre in Wolfsburg, Germany, on Aug. 24, 2007. A Faraday cage is a 19th-century invention that reflects electromagnetic fields and conducts currents around, rather than inside, an enclosure. Fabian Bimmer\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Fabian Bimmer\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“It’s not military grade,” Tyler says, but “it does its job.”<\/p>\n

Tyler says that, because it doesn’t send a signal to jam phones, the setup is totally legal<\/a>. But just in case, the Gin Tub has a sign at its entrance that tells people exactly what they’re getting into: “No Wi-Fi, no signal, just friends.”<\/p>\n

A week in, Tyler says that people are loving the change.<\/p>\n

“I think I’ve hit a nerve in the world, that I think it’s rude, and I think society has accepted people on their phones in bars and in places where it’s socially unacceptable,” he says.<\/p>\n

He hasn’t seen sight of any imitators, but Tyler is confident that his approach \u2014 or at least the general idea \u2014 will win out.<\/p>\n

“I think this is gonna be the new way forward for restaurants and bars and clubs,” he says.<\/p>\n

Without phones in their hands, people are no longer drinking in silence but instead talking with each other. Tyler says that’s how bars were intended.<\/p>\n

“It’s like Cheers<\/em>, the TV program, when you walk in everyone knows your name,” Tyler says. “Well, there are no pubs now where everyone knows your name.”<\/p>\n

That is, except within the Faraday cage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Let’s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> (Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}