Evening star., 1949-11-15
Letters to The Star
Quotes Historical Examples
OF Hatred Of Noise

Quotes Historical Examples
OF Hatred Of Noise
To the Editor Of The Star:
j. The stir about radio in buses and street.
cars makes the chapter, "Our Enemy. Noise"
in q book called 1.-THE Magic Wand OF
Science" by E. w. Nelson, Dutton, 1888.
doubly interesting. quote: "An the noise
which has been made about unnecessary
noise lately has been regarded by many
people as something entirely new, totally
different from anything which ever occurred
before in the history Of the human race.
This is far from the truth, because In 720
B. c. the cultured Greeks who inhabited
the town of Sybaris In Southern Italy passed
a law which prohibited all noise. from resi-
dental districts. There have been other
famous noise-haters in the past. too. Car
lyle made himself a noise-proof room In
which to work; Schopenhauer called noise
the true murderer Of thought: Herbert
Spencer claimed that a mans intelligence
could be accurately measured by the degree
to which he tolerated unnecessary noise.
These men, although they realized that
noise is undesirable and had some sort Of
bad effect upon the human system, did
nothing about it, and 1t has remained for
modern science to attack this problem from
several angles Just what explicit evils can
be blamed onto noise has been rather def
nitely settled by various experiments. Sta
tistical evidence proves that in New York
City d. :. the majority Of taxicab and auto
mobile drivers are partially deaf. This per-
centage is increasing annually The same
conditions have been found to hold true
among men who work In factories and
machine shops where they are continually
exposed to loud noises.
''Noise Is also blamed for the steadily
increasing number Of deaths due to heart
disease The explosion Of q f1recracker will
raise the blood pressure; the ringing Of the
telephone bell speeds up the heart rate. and
the popping Of a blown-up paper bag In
creases the pressure within the brain to four
times normal. All of these things put an
added burden on the heart which eventually
results in its reaching q dangerously over
burdened state. Further laboratory expert
ments have also proved that the constant
exposure to loud noises causes one to fatigue
easily, retards growth, decreases the appe-
tite. and destroys Sleep"
Pray, reprint the noise rating Of cities you
published within the past few years. WASH
ington was noisier than New York. recall.
What happened to the noble anti-horn-
ionking campaign waged by you and the
police for while? In Jackson. Miss, only
an out-of-State driver blows his horn. 1t Is
so unusual CNat people tu1A oAu co"AS'
LET'S TRY AGAIN.
Volunteer Firemen Who Found Lost Child
Held to Deserve Publicity
To the Editor Of The Star:
I have been reading with interest the ac-
count of the missing child, Claire Hanratty
of Lanham, who was found by the volunteer
firemen of Prince Georges County. have
also noted that the child's mother. after
she was found and returned safely. did not
wish pictures taken or further publicity IN
the matter. While can sympathize with
Mrs. Hanratty's desire to protect her child,
I fail to understand why the men who gave
so much time and effort to find the child
should not be given due credit and publicity.
After all, without the interest Of The Star
and the aid and assistance Of the volunteer
firemen, her child might have come to
serious harm. Volunteer flremen> give their
time freely and gladly. The equipment they
use is paid for primarily from voluntary con-
tributions from grateful citizens. Publicity
which they receive from incidents such as
finding the Hanratty child Is very valuable
to them as it serves. as nothing else would,
to show their value to the community.
gal s,.aD1. g., 5,.l e. D. N. H. H.