QUESTION OF ACOUSTICS

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1195, 2 August 1911, Page 4

QUESTION OF ACOUSTICS

SOCXD WAVES IN TOWX HALL. The need for improvement in the acoustics tit the Town Hall was'illustrated at the .Municipal Orchestra's concert last evening. The great hall was only about a third full, at a generous computation, and, in consequence, a decided echo was detectable. It is not a very serious defect, but it prevented the music reaching the audience in the clear-cut form that is desirable, even in the loudest passages. That it is not a serious drawback really constitutes some reason for action on the part of the City Council authorities, who ivitli a trilling expenditure could wire the hall, and » break the sound waves before they, reach the steel coiling. Sound waves may be likened to those made by tossing a pebble into water. They radiate from the platform evenly, and, at: present, strike the metal dome before they reach the audience at the back of Die ]i a l|, 111 a denser atmosphere and higher temperature, such as is created when the hall is full nf people, the detect dees nr£ exist to such a marked extent, as the layer or strata of heated air high up mak.'s a fairly effective barrier to the rising sound waves. Incidentally it may be mentioned that something similar applies to wireless telegraphy. Messages do not travel so far in the vicinity of the Equator as they do in tcmDerate and cold latitudes, ,