WHAT IS A PHON?
A new measure has been added to the list of standard weights and measures recognised in Britain, and before long it will be as familiar as the knot, the therm and the watt. Known as the phon, it is to represent the British unit of loudness, and it has already found itself m print on a noise-meter devised bv the National Physical Laboratory Before long the phon will make its bow in the courts of law. for a committee of the Ministry at Transport has recommended that no noise exceeding 90 phons should be emitted from any motor vehicle. We may all hope, says a London journal, that the motor cyclist nuisance who rushes past us with a shriek of 900 phons will now disappear from the streets; too long he has been allowed to indulge his brutal selfishness at everybodv else's expense. . . . The noise-meter is a mechanical ear and can estimate the degree of a loudness not only when the sound is continuous, but also when it is intermittent, like the throbbing it an engine. The decree of loudness is shown by a pointer moving over a dial, and we may look forward to one more gadget for the dashboard of our motor cur*.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19371029.2.157.12
Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 23335, 29 October 1937, Page 17
Word Count
209WHAT IS A PHON? Otago Daily Times, Issue 23335, 29 October 1937, Page 17
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