NOISEST CITY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 364, 27 October 1932, Page 2

NOISEST CITY

LONDON NOT AS QUlET AS TOWNS IN EUROPE. RESEARCIT IN AMERICA. London is easily th'e noisiest of the larger European cities, according to S. K. Wolf, direetor of the acoustic consulting departmenc of Electrical Rsearch Products. After lecturing in Montreal on noise abatement, Mr. Wolf werit to London, Zurich, Berlin, and Paris. In Paris he delivered an address on "Noise Measuraments in the United States" before the International Electrical Congress last July. The congestion of heavy-track t*-af-fic in the heart of London, espacially in the Fleet street seetion, where the streets are _ very narrow, makes the British capital axtremely noisy. Mr. Wolf declared. Since an ordinance was enacted forbidding the sounding of motor-horns 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 groat 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.

Jfrogress Notioed. During the last two years, sincc the noise-abatement movement becamc active in the United States," ha said there has been notabie progress. Manufacturers and industrialists have realised that noiselessness makes foi more perfect product. The oil, automobile, and other advertisements show that quite^ plainly. Although comparatively little has been aehieved in the European cities 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 successfully. It would be a great thing if such rules could be enforced here. In Iiance a number of automobile manufacturers have concentrated their efforts upon produeing silently operated cars. "One thing struclc 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 apartmenthouses now is being carried out. Spe» cial walls are to be installed in many of the buildings to be erected in Rockeleller Centre, he pointed out. They, are not thick walls, but are coiistructed to prevent noise from penetrating from one room to another.