The Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World (40 page)

2 R. Plot,
The Natural History of Oxford-shire, Being an Essay towards the Natural History of England
, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Printed by Leon Lichfield, 1705), 7.

3
Anechoic
comes from the Greek
an
, meaning “without”; and
echoic
, “relating to an echo.”

4 The cave can still be visited today, and by all accounts this is an amazing soundscape to visit. A short piece of avian echolocation can be found in P. Mahler and H. Slabbekoorn, eds.,
Nature's Music: The Science of Birdsong
(Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2004), 275.

5
Encyclopae
dia Britannica
, “Marin Mersenne,” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/376410/Marin-Mersenne, accessed January 5, 2012.

6 A royal foot is an old measurement of distance. I have taken 1 royal foot to be 0.3287 meter.

7 F. V. Hunt,
Origins in Acoustics: The Science of Sound from Antiquity to the Age of Newton
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1978), 97. 340 meters per second is the value at 15°C (59°F). The speed of sound depends on temperature.

8 The assumption here is that a quack lasts about 0.19 second and a duck's foot is 5 centimeters (2 inches) long. This would then be a
disyllabic echo
, which is the name for an echo consisting of two syllables, according to the old taxonomy.

9 A slightly simplistic calculation, but probably reasonably accurate, unless there is a temperature inversion that allows the quack to carry farther with less attenuation. In many tables, the sound level of a rural setting is shown to be 30 decibels and a whisper, 20 decibels.

10 Hunt,
Origins in Acoustics
, 96.

11 Yodeling is more than just a kitsch form of entertainment. It probably originated to enable easy communication in the mountains. The characteristic switches from high to low pitch, as the singer switches from falsetto to a more normal singing voice, make it easier to pick out the yodel after it has traveled a long way and is barely audible.

12 J. McConnachie,
The
Rough Guide to the Loire
(London: Rough Guides, 2009), 105.

13 R. Radau,
Wonders of Acoustics
(New York: Scribner, 1870), 82.

14 M. Riffaterre,
Semiotics of Poetry
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978), 20.

15 The structure drawn by Kircher would need panels spaced at something like 267, 445, 657, and 767 meters (290, 485, 720, and 840 yards) from the listener. It would probably be impossible to shout the initial “
clamore
” loud enough to make the final echo audible, because the panel is too far away. However, by replacing the flat panels drawn by Kircher with concave surfaces, it should be possible to amplify the reflections and overcome this problem.

16 S. B. Thorne and P. Himelstein, “The Role of Suggestion in the Perception of Satanic Messages in Rock-and-Roll Recordings,”
Journal of
Psychology
116 (1984): 245–48.

17 I. M. Begg, D. R. Needham, and M. Bookbinder, “Do Backward Messages Unconsciously Affect Listeners? No,”
Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology
47 (1993): 1–14.

18
The Simpsons
[television program], season 19, episode 8, first broadcast November 25, 2007, http://movie.subtitlr.com/subtitle/show/190301, accessed November 23, 2011.

19 Radau,
Wonders of Acoustics
, 85–86.

20 P. Doyle,
Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music,
1900
–
1960 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2005), 208.

21 C. Wiley,
The Road Less Travelled:
1
,
000
Amazing Places off the Tourist Trail
(London: Dorling Kindersley, 2011), 121.

22 R. M. Schafer,
The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World
(Rochester, VT: Destiny Books, 1994), 220.

23 Luke Jerram, personal communication, October 20, 2011.

24 Whether you find minor scales sad depends on your musical experiences and tastes. If I were from eastern Europe, the sound might not have been so malevolent and spooky.

25 R. Jovanovic,
Perfect Sound Forever
(Boston: Justin, Charles & Co., 2004), 23.

26 Nick Whitaker, acoustic consultant, personal communication, autumn 2011.

27 B. F. G. Katz, O. Delarozière, and P. Luizard, “A Ceiling Case Study Inspired by an Historical Scale Model,”
Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics
33 (2011): 314–24.

28 A. Lepage, “Le Tribunal de l'Abbaye,”
Le Monde Illustré
19 (1875): 373–76. Translated in Katz, Delarozière, and Luizard, “Ceiling Case Study.”

29 D. Shiga, “Telescope Could Focus Light without a Mirror or Lens,”
New Scientist
, May 1, 2008, http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13820-telescope-could-focus-light-without-a-mirror-or-lens.html?full=true.

30 “Echo Saved Ship from Iceberg,”
Day
(London), June 22, 1914.

31 H. H. Windsor, “Echo Sailing in Dangerous Waters,”
Popular Mechanics
47 (May 1927): 794–97.

32 Ibid.

33 H. H. Windsor, “They Steer by Ear,”
Popular Mechanics
76 (December 1941): 34–36, 180.

34 D. Kish, “Echo Vision: The Man Who Sees with Sound,”
New Scientist
, no. 2703 (April 11, 2009): 31–33.

35 Tor Halmrast, “More Combs,”
Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics
22, no. 2 (2011): 75–82.

36 J. A. M. Rojas, J. A. Hermosilla, R. S. Montero, and P. L. L. Espí, “Physical Analysis of Several Organic Signals for Human Echolocation: Oral Vacuum Pulses,”
Acta Acustica united with Acustica
95 (2009): 325–30.

37 L. D. Rosenblum,
See What I
'm Saying
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2010).

38 A. T. Jones, “The Echoes at Echo Bridge,”
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
20 (1948): 706–7.

39 M. Twain, “The Canvasser's Tale,” in
The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain
(Stilwell, KS: Digireads.com, 2008), 90.

40 Hunt (in
Origins in Acoustics
, p. 96) writes that this is the first verse, but Radau (in
Wonders of Acoustics
, p. 93) states that it is the first line. I use the latter because Hunt gives a timing of 32 seconds for the eight repeats, which is far too short for eight repeats of the first verse, but believable for eight repeats of one line.

41 M. Crunelle, “Is There an Acoustical Tradition in Western Architecture?” (paper presented at the 12th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Lisbon, Portugal, July 11–14, 2005).

42 I. Lauterbach, “The Gardens of the Milanese Villeggiatura in the Mid-sixteenth Century,” in
The Italian Garden: Art, Design and Culture
, ed. J. D. Hunt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 150. This was also noted by Athanasius Kircher; see L. Tronchin, “The ‘Phonurgia Nova' of Athanasius Kircher: The Marvellous Sound World of 17th Century,”
Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics
4 (2008): 015002.

43 Crunelle, “Is There an Acoustical Tradition?”

44 Marc Crunelle, personal communication, December 3, 2011.

45 Peter Cusack, personal communication, January 7, 2012.

46 Saxophones are usually made from metal. The sound is dominated by the effect of the bore shape, which is conical, and by the way the reed vibration shapes how the notes begin and end. The shape of the mouthpiece is very important, and Charlie Parker would have used his normal mouthpiece on the plastic sax. I play the straight soprano saxophone, which can sound remarkably like the (wooden) oboe because both are conically bored and both use reeds to create sound.

47 “Whistling Echoes from a Drain Pipe,”
New Scientist and Science Journal
51 (July 1, 1971): 6.

48 The explanation is slightly more complex if the hands and ear are not on the center line of the pipe, but the effect is similar; see E. A. Karlow, “Culvert Whistlers: Harmonizing the Wave and Ray Models,”
American Journal of Physics
68 (2000): 531–39.

49 Nico Declercq, personal communication, autumn 2011.

50 D. Tidoni, “A Balloon for Linz” [video], http://vimeo.com/28686368, accessed December 21, 2011.

51 “Remarkable Echoes,” in
The
Family Magazine
(Cincinnati, OH: J. A. James, 1841), 107.

1 W. C. Sabine,
Collected Papers on Acoustics
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1922), 257.

2 C. V. Raman, “On Whispering Galleries,”
Bulletin of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
7 (1922): 159–72.

3 E. Boid,
Travels through Sicily and the Lipari Islands, in the Month of December, 1824, by a Naval Officer
(London: T. Flint, 1827), 155–56. W. C. Sabine has interesting discussions on the veracity of the story in his collected papers.

4 T. J. Cox, “Comment on article ‘Nico F. Declercq et al.: An Acoustic Diffraction Study of a Specifically Designed Auditorium Having a Corrugated Ceiling: Alvar Aalto's Lecture Room,' ”
Acta Acustica united with Acustica
97 (2011): 909.

5 N. Arnott,
Elements of Physics
(London: Printed for Thomas and George Underwood, 1827), xxix–xxx.

6 D. Zimmerman,
Britain's Shield: Radar and the Defeat of the Luftwaffe
(Stroud, Gloucestershire: Sutton, 2001), 22; J. Ferris, “Fighter Defence before Fighter Command: The Rise of Strategic Air Defence in Great Britain, 1917–1934,”
Journal of Military History
63 (1999): 845–84.

7 “Can Sound Really Travel 200 Miles?”
BBC News
, December 13, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4521232.stm.

8 “Buncefield Oil Depot Explosion ‘May Have Damaged Environment for Decades,' Hears Health and Safety Trial,”
Daily Mail
, April 15, 2010, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266217/Buncefield-oil-depot-explosion-damaged-environment-decades.html.

9 R. A. Metkemeijer, “The Acoustics of the Auditorium of the Royal Albert Hall before and after Redevelopment,”
Proceedings of the Institute of Acoustics
, 19, no. 3 (2002): 57–66.

10 I first found this exercise described in L. Cremer and H. A. Muller.
Principles and Applications of Room Acoustics
. Translated by T. J. Schultz (London: Applied Science, 1982).

11 “Tests Explain Mystery of ‘Whispering Galleries,' ”
Popular Science Monthly
129 (October 1936): 21.

12 “Tourists Fill Washington: Nation's Capital the Mecca of Many Sightseers,”
New York Times
, April 16, 1894.

13 “A Hall of Statuary: An Interesting Spot at the Great Capitol,”
Lewiston Daily Sun
, December 9, 1893.

14 Cremer and Muller,
Principles and Applications
.

15 There is much more on this design method in my academic text on the subject: T. J. Cox and P. D'Antonio,
Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusers
, 2nd ed. (London: Taylor & Francis, 2009).

16 M. Kington, “Millennium Dome 3, St Peter's Dome 1,”
Independent
(London), October 23, 2000.

17 W. Hartmann, H. S. Colburn, and G. Kidd, “Mapparium Acoustics” (lay language paper presented at the 151st Acoustical Society of America Meeting, Providence, RI, June 5, 2006), http://www.acoustics.org/press/151st/Hartmann.html, accessed February 2011.

18 J. Sánchez-Dehesa, A. HÃ¥kansson, F. Cervera, F. Mesegner, B. Manzanares-Martínez, and F. Ramos-Mendieta, “Acoustical Phenomenon in Ancient Totonac's Monument” (lay language paper presented at the 147th Acoustical Society of America Meeting, New York, May 28, 2004), http://www.acoustics.org/press/147th/sanchez.htm, accessed February 2011.

19 R. Godwin, “On a Mission with London's Urban Explorers,”
London Evening Standard
, June 15, 2012; A. Craddock, “Underground Ghost Station Explorers Spook the Security Services,”
Guardian
(London), February 24, 2012; and B. L. Garrett, “Place Hacking: Explore Everything,”
Vimeo
, http://vimeo.com/channels/placehacking, accessed December 29, 2012.

20 It is estimated that there was 55–80 million cubic meters (about 70–105 million cubic yards) of rubble in Berlin to dispose of after the war. The mountain buried a Nazi military training school.

21 Cremer and Muller,
Principles and Applications
.

22 Hartmann, Colburn, and Kidd, “Mapparium Acoustics.”

23 Ibid.

24 Barry Marshall, personal communication, May 13, 2011.

25 M. Crunelle, “Is There an Acoustical Tradition in Western Architecture?” http://www.wseas.us/e-library/conferences/skiathos2001/papers/102.pdf, accessed December 29, 2012.

26 G. F. Angas,
A Ramble in Malta and Sicily
(London: Smith, Elder, and Co., Cornhill, 1842), 88.

27 T. S. Hughes,
Travels in Sicily, Greece & Albania, Volume
1 (London: J. Mawman, 1820), 104–5.

28 A. Bigelow,
Travels in Malta and Sicily: With Sketches of Gibraltar, in MDCCCXXVII
(Boston: Carter, Hendee and Babcock, 1831), 303.

29 J. Verne,
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
(London: Fantastica, 2013), 125–6.

30 The Temple of Heaven in Beijing includes an “Echo Wall” that is actually a whispering wall.

31 E. C. Everbach and D. Lubman, “Whispering Arches as Intimate Soundscapes,”
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
127 (2010): 1933.

32 Lord Rayleigh,
Scientific Papers. Volume V
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1912), 171.