SCIENCE AND TOPICS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LX, Issue 10827, 26 March 1932, Page 4

SCIENCE AND TOPICS.

NOISE AS A NECESSARY STIMULANT! A MODERN TENDENCY. An eminent doctor declared recently that the younger generation especially in towns, seem dependent upon noise for their happiness and general well being. The generation born during the Great War, he said, show nervous characteristics which respond to, _and are stimulated by, noise of practically any description. Instruments which measure noise have been invented, and scientists have perfected tests which reveal some of the effects of noises on human beings. It is impossible, however, to come to any definite general conclusions on the subject of because the effects are so varied and contradictory.

Investigations into the subject of industrial fatiuge revealed the undoubted fact that many thousands of workers became easily tired and were suffering in health because they were working daily in a noisy atmosphere. On the other hand the number of people who are stimulated by noise and who cannot work efficiently in a quiet atmosphere is steadily growing.

Cotton operatives practise a system of lip-reading because they cannot hear themselves speak in the mills, yet they are highly skilled and efficient workers. New York’s subway is probably the most “nerve-racking” place in the civilised world. Yet the thousands who crowd into it every day are not noticeably lacking in energy—on the contrary! It will be found, though, that most of these people, accustomed to noise all day long, cannot enjoy themselves without noise in the evening. And the more discordant the better. Hence jazz.

In London’s Underground, another place where normal talking is impossible, the effect is being tried of spraying the interior of the tunnels with a mixture of shredded asbestos and glue. If the experiments succeed, it will be easy to hold polite converse in the trains —but some passengers are already declaring that they consider the noise of the trains more pleasantEiforts to silence traffic with rubber road surfaces have not met with much success. Nor has legislation against proved much better.

It seems that we are doomed to lead a noisy life. But need we be nervous about that? Anti-noise advocates bring evidence to prove that sudden noises will cause the heart to jump and will increase blood pressure. But who ca.n say whether these effects on the heart and blood system are definitely injurious or whether some stimulation in this way is not desirable in a great many people? A countryman hears “noise” in the middle of a great town. A townsman hears “noise” when he is awakened by the morning bird-chorus of the countryside. There is din in the machine room, but—contrary to the general belief —-the great tropical forests are in perpetual uproar. No one, however, seems to have troubled about the effects of nature’s noises on the nerves and health of the Indians of the Amazons! The noise resulting from continuous talking is said to induce fatigue in some people. We all know how boring and monotonous it is to. listen to the constant chatter of someone whose conversation does not' interest us, and it is probably considerations of interest or pleasure which decide whether continuous talking wearies us or not.

In fact, the whole question of noise effects seems to resolve itself into one of reaction, either agreeable or otherwise. It is not unreasonable to believe that if we like a certain form of noise and react favourably to it, the noise will not harm us in any way.

Some people felt happy and stimulated by the noise of an airplane engine; others prefer the natural noises of a farmyard. Human beings vary so greatly in their characteristics that It would seem impossible to determine whether any one kind of noise will produce a constant effect on any group of people. .