PHENOMENON OF SOUND.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13486, 4 June 1914, Page 8

PHENOMENON OF SOUND.

A fcv years ago, -while the Juiigfraxi llaihvay was in process of construction, it violent explosion of dynamite occurred. An examination of the dierent places to which the sound penetrated led to a very curious result. It showed that the explosion was heard in two regions widely separatee! from each other, one being that part <■■!' the Bernes Oberland which ad- j joined the site of the explosion, while the other was the country round the Lake of Constance. In the region lying between these two districts the detonation was inaudible. A similar phenoi!-enon was noticed in connection with the catastrophe at Feorde, in TVostphalia. Here, too, after passing through what might be called the environment normally affected, one came to a zone of silence, which in its turn was succeeded by a zone extending along the Rivers Weser, Leine, Fulda, and Werra, where the explosion was clearly audible. Several scientists found that similar experiences were noticed during volcanic eruptions in Japan, particularly with the eruptions of Asamayama. It transpired that the direction in which the sound was audible tallied with the direction of the wind prevailing in the middle layers of the atmosphere, and it seemed as if the action of the wind could alone explain the existence of the zone of (silence.