Milford chronicle., 1889-07-19
RESONANCE OF BUILDINGS.

Obstacles Resulting from Wretchedly Rad
Acoustics.
There are some buildings which are so ut
/ terly bad, from the acoustic point Of view,
chat even experienced speakers are little Bet
ter OFF than novices. The house Of lords has,
or used to have, an unenyiable reputation in
this respect. A story is told Of the late Lord
Lyttelton that, after exhausting his voice In
vain efforts to make his brother peers hear a
motion which he wished to propose he in de
spair wrote It down and asked the clerk at
the table to read it out That functionary,
! however, was quite unable to declpher the
writing, and Lord LytteltOn complained that
be was cut OFF from communication with his
fellowa
Science he ySaA always been successful in
coping with Z acoustic difficulty In iS4S
It was so difficult for speakers to make them
selves heard in the French chamber that
committee. consisting of the leading scientific
luminaries OF the day-such as Arago, Babi-
net, Dumas abe chemist, not the author Of
The Three Musketeers'1, Becquerel, Chew
reul, PouiIlet, Regnault and Duhamel-was
appointed 70 study the case and suggest a
remedy. After numerous experiments they
bit on a COntTivance, designed on the most
scientific principles, which was to make the
OTatOr's voice ring like a clarion TO the
faTthest benches. The last state of the speaker,
however, was worse than the first; he felt as
II bis voice was stihed under a huge night
cap, and the highly scientific sound reflector
had to be discarded as a failure.
Indeed, modern public buildings are so
often detective in this respect that am not
surprised to find NJ CHI GARNER who de-
signed the Grand Opera, In Paris, exclaim-
ing dolefully: "The science of theatrical
acoustics Is still In its infancy, and the result
in any given case is uncertain" So i'm
pressed is he with the Shortcomings Of mod
ern architecture, as regards the conveyance
Of sound, that he frankly confesses that, In
the construction Of the opera house, he chad
no guide, adopted no principle, based his de-
sign on no theory he simply left the acous-
tic properties Of the building to chance. The
result has not been altogether satisfactory,
though it has been no worse than in many
other buildings where the architect did his
best to make the acoustic conditions perfect.
One Of the most remarkable buildings
from the acoustic point Of view that have
ever seen is the beehive shaped temple in
Salt lake City. It holds from 1000 TO a.
900 people, and one can literally hear pin
fall When l was in the temple, with some
other travellers, in 1882, the functionary
corresponding to the verger Of ordinary
churches stood at the farthest end and
dropped pin into his hat The sound Of It's
fail was most distinctly audible to all pres
ent. The scratching Of the pin against the
side of the hat was also plainly heard across
the whole breadth of the building.
The temple was designed by Brigham
Young, who professed to have been directly
inspired by the Almighty In the matter, as
be knew nothing about acoustics. The reso-
nance of the building is 50 loud that branches
Of trees have to be suspended from the cell
ing In several places in order to diminish it.
It is likely enough that Brigham Young's
inspiration had a very reconcile and purely
terrestrial source, for his beehive Is only a
slight modification Of tho whispering gallery
ia St Panls
The bad aeeogstic properties Of hgildinR