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What are fog machines?

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Nearly twenty years ago, the University of Miami football team became known for its traditional entrance onto the playing field, during which the players would run out of a tunnel and appear through a large cloud of fog. Today, firefighters train to combat fires by working within a heavy fog. Both the intimidation of the Miami Hurricanes and the life-saving expertise of firemen are made possible through the use of a fog machine.

Fog machines have only one job: to produce fog. Fog, whether natural or manmade, is the presence of vaporized liquid in the air. While natural fog occurs at somewhat unexpected times and places, however, a fog machine allows you to vaporize the liquid yourself in order to control and localize fog for a dramatic effect or a specific purpose.

Today, fog machines are most familiar in entertainment settings—in concerts, clubs, and to create a scene in a play or movie—and at Halloween, where people use the fog to create an eerie environment. In addition, however, fog machines are valuable in the industrial sector, where companies use them to test air conditioner filters or find drafts in buildings, for example.

There is some dispute, however, regarding whether the machines should actually be called fog machines, as they are in the United States, or smoke machines, as they are in the United Kingdom. Technically, the substance that is produced is neither fog nor smoke, but like fog, the machine produces injects vaporized liquid particles rather than solid particles into the air, so the term “fog machine” is slightly more accurate. There’s no real harm in calling it either term, of course, but don’t be confused—it’s the same machine by either name.

Next Page: How does a fog machine work?

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