THE MEASUEEMENT OF NOISE 



By G. W. C. Kaye, O. B. E., M. A., D. So., M. R. I. 

 Superintendent, Physics Department, National Physical Laboratory 



The problem of noise is one common to all civilized nations and 

 its steady increase with the industrial development of the present 

 generation is becoming a matter for concern. The mechanization 

 and growth of road transport, for example, have brought in their 

 train a sea of noises in which a large number of people are daily 

 submerged. 



One reads that visitors to London extol it as the quietest capital 

 city in the world. If so, the merit is wholly relative. It is under- 

 stood, in this connection, that inquiries into the question of noise are 

 being conducted in certain cities abroad, for example, Paris, Rome, 

 and Berlin. New York, probably the outstanding example of a 

 mechanized city, and admittedly the noisiest, has already set about 

 the problem with characteristic expedition and remarkable thor- 

 oughness. A recent comprehensive report called City Noise, pub- 

 lished in 1930 by the Noise Abatement Commission of the Department 

 of Health, New York City, is a mine of information (from which I 

 have not hesitated to draw) and a model of what a report should be 

 which is intended to interest and educate the public and to secure its 

 friendly cooperation. The commission, composed of eminent medical 

 men, physicists, engineers, and lawyers, arranged for the measure- 

 ment and analysis of the various types of noise in many parts of 

 New York, succeeded in establishing a number of relations and gen- 

 eralizations, the truth of which had only been vaguely suspected, and 

 so were enabled to make proposals designed to secure noise abate- 

 ment wherever it might be found practicable. Certain recommenda- 

 tions to this end have in fact already been given effect. 



In Great Britain the introduction of legislation dealing with 

 excessive noise has so far not proved possible ; and it may be that the 

 better plan is first to educate public opinion. Traffic noises have, 

 however, been the subject of conferences under the auspices of the 

 Ministry of Transport, while aircraft noises are being studied by a 



' Taper delivered at the weekly evening meeting of the Royal Institution of Great Brit- 

 ain, May 8, J931 ; reprinted by permission. 



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