BLAMED ONCE MORE.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1928, Page 21

BLAMED ONCE MORE.

Women, they say are the cause of all trouble, but to blame them for the echoes in the famous Albert Hall is the very latest accusation to be laid against them (states a London correspondent). According to an expert on acoustics the echoes which have been making themselves manifest night after night -lately with a disconcerting effect on artists and audience alike, arise from the prevailing feminine faehions—or rather the lack of them. “With their shingled hair and skimpy clothes,” he says, “women are not as sound absorbing as they were when dresses were voluminous and fluffy.” Mr. C. B. Cochran has dcided to make the hall echo-proof, and recently started operations with a small army of experts on a gigantic echo hunt. Two men set in motion the wheels of an “interrupter,” a scientific instrument which combines the function of a searchlight with that of a projector, and throws out simultaneously sound and light. When an echo is located the interrupter buzzes, the sound of which is like the twittering of a thousand birds. The Royal box was proved echo-proof, but the baek of the arena set the ghost birds singing their song. Altogether fifteen echoes were located. All the blame, however, cannot be put upon women’s shoulders, for continuing in his explanation the

expert said the hard dress shirt fronts of the men are bad sound or echo absorbers. It will take about seven weeks to locate the Albert Hall echoes scientifically, biit once they arc traced the danger spate will be draped with some sound-absorbing material and the ghosts will be laid for ever.