32 Miracles Ahead! 



smokeless burned gases escape up the chimney. Models of 

 the furnace (minus smokestack) have been operated in Ur- 

 bana and Springfield, Illinois, hotel lobbies to demonstrate 

 their smokeless performance. 



Southern Illinois and other soft-coal interests hope the fur- 

 nace will help them regain markets lost in past years as the 

 result of antismoke ordinances in many cities, including once- 

 smoky St. Louis. Professor Fellows believes his furnace will 

 appeal to many homeowners who cannot afford stokers and 

 yet wish low-cost, smokeless coal heat. 



Soundproofing 



Noise is definitely harmful to one's nerves, and there is too 

 much of it in the average home. Sound-absorbing material, 

 which traps sound in thousands of small holes and keeps it 

 from bouncing around a room, should be used extensively in 

 the home of tomorrow. There is no reason why the clatter 

 from the kitchen, or the uproar of the playroom, should be 

 allowed to invade the living room. And a telephone nook, or 

 a corner for reading or writing, could be protected from 

 noises in other parts of the living room that center of many 

 activities of the average family. The new, open-front tele- 

 phone booths in New York City's Sixth Avenue Subway are 

 an outstanding example of effective soundproofing. A person 

 can phone even while a train is rumbling by. 



Proper Acoustics 



The Architectural Forum goes another step forward and 

 says that acoustics should not stop at the mere absorption of 

 a sound. "It seems likely," the Forum declares, "that the de- 

 signer of the house of the future will have to be as much con- 

 cerned with rooms that 'sound' and 'feel' right as with appear- 



