TECHNICAL NOTES AND RESEARCH BRIEFS

7.4

UNESCO DISCUSSES

"NOISE POLLUTION"

INTERNATIONAL CONCERN about the dele.-

terious effects of noise on the public hearing is mirrored in a special issue of the UNESCO Courier, dated July 1967. The issue comprises seven feature articles on

various phases of the noise-pollution problem:

"Down with Decibels," O. SCHENKER- SPR•NOLI

"The Architects of Silence," CONSTA•- TON STRAMENTOV "Street and Air Traffic Noise--and

What We Can Do About It," LEo L. BERANEK

"Supersonic Boom Carpet"

"Cordoba (Argentina) Takes Noise Abatement by the Horns," G. L. FvcI•s

"Echoes from Our Noisy World" "The Danger of Sounds We Cannot Hear"

The Journal is published by the UNESCO Publications Center, 317 E. 34 St., New York, N.Y. 10016, at 50 cents a copy.•-•

10.1

THE ULTRASONIC WORLD

"R,•.Pa HA•.AVAH, a member of the so- phisticated new breed of Wall Street busi- ness analysts, allowed his mind to drift from the stock tables as he commuted to work

over a smooth (ultrasonically inspected) railbed.

"In a few days, he had to decide for or against recommending an investment in a small company specializing in ultrasonics-- a field making headlines every so often but never producing a 'General Motors of Ultraconics' with sales in the billions and

profits to match. "Rushing into his office, past the com-

bined (ultrasonic) intruder alarm and fire detector, Halavah soon was immersed in a maelstrom of activities. The ultrasonic in-

dustry was of seemingly small potential compared to opportunities in lasers, water and air pollution control, and oceanology, to name but a few of the new "glamor" fields currently eclipsing color television, radar, and the older electronic activities.

"Halavah's lunch was a hurried sandwich

filled with (ultrasonically) homogenized peanut butter topped of[ with an (ultra- sonically) degassed soft drink of considera- ble fame. At 4 o'clock, he found time for a routine bout with his dentist who (ultra- sonically) cleaned his teeth without the ex- pected gouging and pain. Looking for a little excitement on the way to his beach-

front home, Halavah boarded the new hovercraft, oblivious of an invisible (ultra- sonic) height sensor which kept the boat from nosing over into the waves.

"After dinner, Halavah lounged in his favorite chair, lazily switching TV channels with his (ultrasonic) remote control, while his wife had the pain of her bursitis relieved by an (ultrasonic) therapy unit. At 9 o'clock, there still was time for a moonlight spin in their new power boat, handily fitted with an (ultrasonic) depth indicator. A few cans of (ultrasonically) degassed beer con- cluded the pleasant evening."

The above is quoted from the introduc- tion to an article "Ultraconics," by Robert L. Rod, president of Acoustic Associates, Inc., in Industrial Research for February 1968 (pp. 61-64). Mr. Rod goes on to dis- cuss, in a more serious vein, the tremen- dous scope of ultrasonic technology, "the silent technology," and gives the following impressive list of fields of application:

Liquids:

(above cavitational threshold) Aerosol generation Chemical processing Cleaning and degreasing Drilling or impact grinding Mixing and emulsification Plating Quenching Filtering liquids

(Below cavitational threshold)

Accelerated crystal growth Accelerated plant growth Medical therapy Plating

Cases:

Aerosol agglomeration Defoaming Improved combustion Improved heat transfer

Others:

Medical surgery Oil-well drilling Plastic sealing Welding Reducing friction Density and viscosity measurement Fire detectors

Flaw detection

Gas analysis Intruder alarms

Liquid level, volume, and mass measurement

Sonar

Strength of materials Thickness gauging

In addition, he points to some specific new applications which include smog con- trol, human-tissue repair, cold drawing of tubing, deposition of coatings, torque wrench, and computer-disk cleaning.

7.2

PERSONAL NOISE CONTROL

WE SEE by the papers (N.Y. Times) that a West German doctor has developed an "antisnore harness," as reported by the medical magazine Deutsches .4 ½rzleblatt, and

relayed by Reuters. The harness, which buckles around the wearer's head "like a

pony's bridle, holds a strap tightly across the face between nose and upper lip during sleep" (assuming, of course, that one can sleep).

The good doctor is quoted as saying that he believes snoring is "not only unaes- thetic, but detrimental to the heart and circulation." Particularly those of the harried listener, we would guess.•-•

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 805

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