The Tyranny of Noise

Robert Alex Baron

Part IV — Chapter 8 — Potential For Control

As a last resort, a specific noise source can be banned.

One of the first sources to go in recent history was the poubelle, the French garbage can. In Paris, household poubelles must be of a design that permits noiseless handling of the lid and the can body. The ordinance introduced in 1959 gave householders until January 1, 1963—three years—to replace existing cans; after that date, those that did not meet the "noiseless" specifications were not emptied.

In the United States at least one local government arranged the banning of automatically operated bells, chimes, and gongs used on ice cream trucks. When enforcement of a curfew on sound signals after 9:00 P.M. proved impossible, New York City's former Markets Commissioner Gerard Weisberg took action. He acknowledged the benefits of mobile ice cream vending: convenience and the summer employment offered young people on vacation. He only objected to the nuisance value of the automated signals. In 1968 he issued a new regulation, making their use illegal. He figured that a vendor with hand bells would be too busy dispensing ice cream to ring the bell often enough to create a nuisance in the neighborhood.