HOW THE DEAF HEAR.

Shannon News, 25 September 1923, Page 3

HOW THE DEAF HEAR.

HUMAN SOUNDING BOARD. •- Contrary to popular belief (writes “Af Deaf Woman” in the “Royal Magazine”) we deaf people do not live in titter silence. There are times when we.iwish wo did.

•JL slamming - do,or, unexpected firing, or train whistle, can be no more _startling to anyone with 1 -the use of his ears thafi. to sensitive deaf people, who may chance ■ to be where the vibration of such sounds can reach them without .interruption

fghe fact is, owing to our lack of heaving, the sense of feeling becomes highly developed in us, and some kinds of "’‘noises” we hear with our whole persons. The chest,.in particular, acts afe a sounding-board for the reception and exaggeration of explosive sounds to the owner’s annoyance. The result is sometimes not without humour; witness my experience with aii unemployed band- the other da>. They were iined along the kerb, the whole awful instrumental array of tlicm, when suddenly I felt as though a.giant fist bad caught me in the chest and driven me backwards several fQet In reality I- had only, hesitated a, moment, and the reason was the operator of some huge brass instrument had breathed an exceptionally deep note* into it - just as' I passed by the muzzle. ' It was the impact of that, note that felt to me'like a knock-out blow from an invisible Cafpentier. I recall one illustration of this “hearing without ears” that has almost historic interest. It was some, time ago at a time when I worked beside a window that was always open at the top. One day a curious, elusive sound took me to the - window to stare, puzzled, at the clear- sky from wdience it sedmed to come. No ’plane was to be seen, all was quiet; I asked the other members of the household if there had been an explosion anywhere, or if the coastguard were practising. They were certain no unusual noise had been, heard. For a day or. two more the,elusive’ sound came again at times, until, from familiarity, I ceased to notice it. - Then other people, possessed of good hearing, began to talk and to write to the papers, and the mystery "was solved. r

That open window faced the southeast, and I, a deaf person, had been one ’of the 'first, people in England to “hear” the titanic cannonading of the German guns in their push for Calais.