The Tyranny of Noise

Robert Alex Baron

Part III — Chapter 7 — The Politics Of Noise

Industry's deafness to the need for noise abatement may be described as dollarcusis. It is difficult to "hear" the pitifully weak outcries of an outraged public if every dollar not spent on design for quiet or operations for quiet is seen as a corporate gain. The noise control engineer is either low man on the design totem pole; or kept off the pole altogether. Design for quiet has no tangible sales value.

Economic considerations are not peculiar to the free enterprise system. Attending the Vth International Congress for Noise Abatement in London were several Moscow engineers and physicists working in aviation acoustics. I asked them this question: "In profit-system U.S. the aviation industry justifies not reducing jet noise because it claims such reduction may involve economic penalties in additional operating costs, lower payloads, and so forth. From what little I know of the Soviet jet engines, they may be slightly quieter, but they are no paragons of silence. What is your excuse?"

The one Russian engineer who spoke English grinned sheepishly and replied: "Operating economy."

Product design is a management responsibility. Management evades design for quiet, choosing to design as if human beings had no ears, or homes were located in the middle of silent deserts. Listen to that kitchen blender. Designed to look as beautiful as a space ship, it sounds like the launching of one.

At a safety conference, no less, I asked a manufacturer's representative what was being done to reduce the noise of his line of hand drills and other extremely noisy do-it-yourself tools. At first he didn't understand what I was driving at. I patiently explained about noise.

"Oh, noise. We don't give it a thought. If we did, it would probably be 342nd on our list of priorities."

During a meeting with Detroit automobile executives I raised the question of vehicular noise.

"We have done a great job on the passenger car," replied one of the executives.

"If the driver buys an air-conditioned model and keeps the windows closed," I observed. "That is not the noise I mean. I mean the noise that hits the pedestrian and the public at home."

"Oh, you mean spectator noise. Why, we're not doing anything."

It is unfortunate that noise is associated with large cities, New York especially. Unfortunate, because one finds a dislike of large cities both in industry and in government, not to mention in some conservation circles.

Pollster Lou Harris reported that the American people are aware there is an urban crisis, but couldn't care less. The Washington attitude is said to be, if anyone is dumb enough to live in New York City, let him pay the penalty. Columnist Jack Anderson has explained, "The old men who run Congress come chiefly from rural areas...Most of the powerful committee chairmen come from rural towns and do not understand big-city needs." Even city planning commissioners accept stress as a normal part of city living. They permit center-city aviation because aviation progress must not be stopped, and any environmental side-effects are par for city life.

Business executives who live in the quiet suburbs could choose to design for quiet, but they do not regard themselves as their brother's keeper. They see no reason for concern for the quality of urban environments. And they have little respect for the urban environment.

An automobile industry representative, who himself lives in a small town, complained that New York City's noise left him tired and out-of-sorts. When I tried to defend the city, he stopped me. "You've got to admit," he said, "that New York has its unique unpleasant sound."

I took him to a giant construction site. He winced as he walked by the roaring compressors.

"Those noisy engines are not manufactured in New York City."

Next I took him on a tour of East 57th Street, site of some of the best-known specialty shops in the world, and also a main crosstown traffic artery. The poor man winced again, and again, at the horns and the general traffic din.

"It's the automotive industry that's responsible for most of the unpleasant street noises of New York and other cities. Give us quieter buses and trucks, sensible auto horns, and quiet engines for compressors, and we would give you and other visitors a more pleasant environment. The men who dictate our environment live in the suburbs of Detroit."

Dollarcusis is rife in the air conditioning industry. "The engineers," wrote Sheldon Wesson in Home Furnishings Daily, "are under great pressure to cut down weight, size and price, with the result that the acoustical properties are largely shoved aside. It would mean virtually redesigning all units on the market to make the consumer willing to pay for both reduced noise and cooling comfort." Window units are sold for cooling, not comfort. The president of Lennox Industries acknowledges, "There is no secret to making air conditioning equipment quiet. It simply takes room and money. Design decisions are as much economic as they are scientific."

The eyes have it, and the ears get it.