London the Noisiest City

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 92, 15 October 1932, Page 23

London the Noisiest City

London is easily the noisiest of the larger European cities, according to S. K. Wolf, director of the acoustic consulting department of Electrical Research Products. After lecturing in Montreal on noise abatement, Mr. Wolf went to London, Zurich, Berlin, and Paris. Iv Paris.he delivered au address on "Noii?e Measurements in the United States" before the International Electrical Congress last July. The congestion of heavy-truck traffic in tho heart of London, especially in the Fleet street Section, Where the streets are very narrow, makes the British capital : extremely noisy, Mr. Wolf • declared. Since an ordinance was enacted forbidding the sounding of niirtor-liorus after 1 a.m. Paris is not quite so noisy as it was, he said. As for Berlin, the noise-abatement movement has attracted a great deal of interest, but although the Germans possess as much laboratory knowledge as American engineers, the actual process of stopping noise is a slow affair there, according to Mr. Wolf.

f'During the last two years, siricp the noise-abatement movement became active iii the United States," he said, "there has been notable progress. Manufacturers awl industrialists have

realised that noiselessness makes for more perfect products. The oil, automobile, and other advertisements show that quite plainly. Although comparatively little has been achieved in the European cities that I visited, the results obtained here have awakened great interest.

_ "In Berlin, for instance, traffic zoning has proved most efficacious. Hospital and school zoning has been attempted in New York, but not BUCCIMB--tu iy. it would be a great thing if such rules could be enforced here. In I'ranee a number of automobile manufacturers have concentrated their efforts upon producing silently operated cars. r

"One thing struck me in Europe—the comparative quietness of the hotels there. You hardly ever hear the blaring noise of radios." °

Mr. Wolf, who made -many of the tests in New York for the Noise Abatement Commission, said the proper designing of walls in apartment-houses now is being carried out. Special walls are to be installed in many of the buildings to be erected in Rockefeller Centre, lie pointed out. They are uot thick walls, but arc constructed to prevent noise from penetrating from one room to another. • - . ' :