HUMANS AND NOISE

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 111, 3 February 1934, Page 18

HUMANS AND NOISE

Can Tune in With Each Other

Britons seem to be getting noise-proof. Many of them appear to be acquiring the faculty of “tuning-in” to the clatter going on around them day after day in streets, in factories and in offices. They seem able to shut their ears to constant noise in much the same way as they can shut their eyes. Mr. C. Scarborough, member of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology describes the results of investigations into this aspect of modern life in an interview. “In factories we have found that provided the noise is not too intense, the workers get used to it very speedily,” he said. “A little while ago I went into the body-shop of a motor factory and the din of the men hammering mud-guards was at first definitely painful to me. But I got quite accustomed to it very quickly and hardly noticed it any longer.” “In noisy factories our investigators have found sometimes that at first they could not hear people talk, hear what was said on the telephone or make themselves understood. But after they had been there a short time they could do all these things.” Irregular noises are far worse for the nerves than a steady din, he finds. The intermittent clatter of road-drills, the explosions of motor bicycles backfiring and sudden blasts from horns produce a feeling of distraction and irritation out of all proportion to the actual volume of sound. Experiments to determine the effect of noise upon working efficiency have

been carried out at. an American university with girl typists. Elaborate apparatus was attached to them to measure respiration, energy expended, variations of blood-pressure and muscle “tone.” In addition, a special noise-making apparatus was attached. It was found that when typing in a perfectly quiet room the girls’ expenditure of energy was 5 per cent, above their expenditure of energy when at rest. But when the noise apparatus was turned on, their expenditure of energy was 72 per cent, above that at rest. The effect of noise upon the speed of the work of the various girls was different. On one girl a reduction in the amount of noise had no effect whatever; but vtith all the others their speed increased as the room got quieter. There are some people, however, who prefer to work in a noisy atmosphere, no doubt because they have become used to it, points out Mr. Scarborough. “I heard once of a journalist who retired into the country but found that he did not work nearly so well. He declared that if he had the money ho would arrange that his whole house should be kept vibrating, machinery would throb, bells would ring and every few minutes a boy would pop his head in through the door to know if his proofs were ready. He missed the atmosphere of a big newspaper office and he could not work happily without it.”—Reuter.—Special to “The Dominion.”