26 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



tices are. Doubtless the real workers aud thinkers along this line 

 are often in a frame of mind like Isaac Newton's when he said: 

 ' ' T know not how I seem to other men, but to myself I seem like a 



child playing on the seashore, amusing myself by now and then 

 finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than my companions, 

 wliile the groat ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. ' ' 



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ttreTOaig»»TOa«!K» ti»»tew!}:M 3i g:tw!!it^^ 



INfoise in the Business Office 



What does noise cost? 



Time, place, and circumstances must be known before an intel- 

 ligent answer can be given to tJiat question. It is a fact, however, 

 that w-aste due to noise is one of the losses to which conservation 

 commissions have not yet given much attention. They have been 

 figuring on nearly everything else from forest fires to the leaching 

 of nitrogen from the soil, but somehow they have missed the prob- 

 lem of saving the Imman mind from the wear, tear, worry, and 

 distraction of noise. 



What has that to do with wood? it may be asked. 



The question lias a lot to do with wood, and wood will have a 

 lot to do with this problem. The first point is to appreciate the 

 loss due to noise in an hour, a day, or a year, and it will then be 

 time to begin to look for remedies. 



Although conservation commissions and efficiency experts have 

 usually passed noise by in their search for other things that want 

 curing, some attention has been given the matter by Dean Sabine, 

 who has collected facts and statistics which tend to show that 

 noise may become one of the greatest, most inexcusable sources of 

 waste that the modern business man must contend against. Such 

 is not true of all situations and at all times; but of many situations 

 and at many times it is true, and when it is true it is a matter that 

 may be clearly demonstrated. 



Begin with the modern office, aud in order to be precise and 

 explicit, confine the present discussion to the office where modern 

 business is carried on by modern methods. Machines are noisy. 

 The typewriter, the adding machine, the dictagraph, and telephone 

 are not as quiet as the old-time accountants were who worked 

 silently at their desks in situations so still that a dropped pin was 

 always recovered, because its fall was heard, and it was picked 

 up. The confusion in a modern office, particularly if a large one, 

 is often incessant. Experiments have shown that it is wearing on 

 the nervous energy. This is not the dictum of theorists, but the 

 conclusions of business men who know by experience and by observa- 

 tion. Mr. Sabine cites many instances where strong business men 

 have been almost incapacitated by the extra strain on their nerves, 

 due to resisting noise, and fighting against it. The strain and 

 drain are no less on all in the office force. The workers must 

 employ part of their nerve force in resisting the noise, and they 

 can give less to their tasks. They wear threadbare, as it were, 

 before the day is over. 



The only way to measure this loss of energy, and consequent 

 depreciation of work, is to compare conditions before and after — 

 the amount and quality of output while conditions were bad, and 

 after the worst of the noise nuisance has been abated. In numer- 

 ous instances the showings have been remarkable. Lessening of 

 noise results in better work, more of it, and a saving in strength 

 and energy on the part of the operators. In other words, noise 

 and confusion are wastes that must be paid for out of the earnings 

 of the business just as surely as insurance and taxes must be paid. 

 Many large business houses are seriously considering means for 

 lessening noise. There are various ways of doing it, but no method 

 will be of practical benefit that lowers the efficiency of the machinery 

 and apparatus in use. Best results thus far have been reached by 

 absorbing the noise. It is not so much the sound at the point 

 where it originates which disturbs as it is the echo and reverbera- 

 tion from the walls and ceiUng of the room. It is when echoes 

 repeat and multiply the sounds that the confusion becomes dis- 

 tracting. Experience and tests have frequently proved this. Absorb 

 the sounds when they strike the room's walls, the eeUing, and the 

 fixtures, and the confusion largely disappears. 



Various devices for doing this liavc liccn tried, and their effi- 

 ciency has been carefully measured. It is found that the best de- 

 stroyer of noise in a room is the open window. The sound goes 

 out and never comes back. It is impracticable to have open windows 

 at all seasons of the year; and in many instances in cities like 

 Chicago and New York an open window lets in more noise from 

 the street than it lets out. Too many open windows are objectionable 

 in other ways. Some up-to-date offices dispense wholly with open 

 windows and secure ventilation through pipes from the roof. 



Next after the open window as a deadener of noise, felt cloth 

 holds highest place. Some offices cover their ceilings and even 

 their walls with sheets of felt. It produces excellent results, but 

 there are serious objections to felt, or any other cloth, on office 

 walls. It is insanitary. If it is fastened at certain points only, 

 so that it may be removed and cleaned, it is unsightly ; and if it is 

 tacked or glued tightly against the wall, it speedily becomes highly 

 objectionable. Felt, therefore, has its limits, and the limits are 

 narrow. 



Next after felt as a deadener of sound is wood. It ranks in 

 efficiency above plaster on either wood or wire lath, more than 

 twice as effective as glass, and ranks still higher above plaster 

 on tile or brick set in cement. The tests made have been elaborate 

 and far-reaching and they prove beyond a doubt that wood, as a 

 sound deadener for office walls, ranks higher than any other mate- 

 rial that can be used in a practical way. 



' ' Many are called and few chosen " is a text that applies here. 

 Almost every conceivable material and combination of materials 

 has had its day as interior finish. They come and go. Some may 

 answer one purpose fairly well, others may fill other places, but after 

 the whole round of trials and experiments has been gone through, 

 wood comes out superior to all. The advocate of substitutes and 

 makeshifts is doomed to final failure in his war on wood. 



The cost of noise is coming to be a recognized drain in large 

 offices. It is a waste that can be measured. It is largely an 

 unnecessary waste, and the time is near at hand when no unneces- 

 sary waste will be tolerated by the business men of this country. 

 The architect that plans the office must give as much study to 

 ways and means of deadening sounds as he now gives to increasing 

 the acoustics of auditoriums and music haUs. Plaster will be 

 rejected in planning the walls and ceiling of the office; glass will 

 be used if not sparingly at least advisedly; and sheet metal will 

 be cast into outer darkness; but wood will hold the place which 

 it has always held, because of its unquestioned superiority as a 

 deadener and absorber of sound. 



Fortunately for wood, its employment as interior finish does 

 not depend upon a single property. Many persons will continue to 

 use it who have no particular interest in noise or the absence of 

 noise. They will be guided by the beauty of the broad panels or 

 the artistic tones and figures of frames and beams. Stamped sheet 

 metal is a poor substitute for the rich, harmonious colors of the 

 genuine article; and the glassy surface of tiles will be left out 

 of consideration by those who understand the difference between 

 shams and the reality. 



Though noise comes high and some may insist on having it in 

 their offices, the investigations which have been begun and the 

 progress already made in attaining scientific results, clearly point 

 the way to the use of wood for finish as the most effectual way of 

 lessening the waste due to the din which some erroneously suppose 

 to be inseparably connected with modern methods of transacting 

 business. Wood has won in the past and it will continue to win 

 because it is efficient, sufficient, and satisfactory as interior finish. 



