Collected Papers on Acoustics (Classic Reprint) - Tapa blanda

Excerpt from Collected Papers on Acoustics

On the one hand we have the problem (reverberation) which we have been discussing up to the present moment, and on the other the whole Question of the transmission of sound from one room to another, through the walls, the doors, the ceiling and the floors; and the telephonic transmission, if I may so call it, through the length of the structure. It is five years ago since this second problem was first attacked and though the research is certainly not complete, some ground has been covered. A quantitatively exact method has been established and the transmission of sound through about twenty different kinds of partitions has been determined.

For example: Transmission of sound through four kinds of doors has been studied; two of oak, two of pine, one of each kind was paneled and was relatively thin and light; one of each kind was very heavy, nearly four centimetres thick; through four kinds of windows, one of plate glass one with common panes, one double with an air space of two centimetres between, one with small panes set in lead such as one sees in churches; through brick walls with plaster on both sides; through walls of tile similarly plastered; through walls of a character not common in France and which we call gypsum block; through plaster on lath; through about ten different kinds of sound insulators, patented, and sold in quantities representing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, yet practically without value, since one can easily converse through six thicknesses of these substances and talk in a low tone through three, while a single thickness is that ordinarily employed. The behavior of an air space has been studied, the effect of the thickness of this air space, and the result of filling the space with sand, saw-dust and asbestos. In spite of all this, the research is far from complete and many other forms of construction must be investigated before it will be possible to publish the results; these determinations must be made with the greatest exactness as very important interests are involved.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Collected Papers on Acoustics

This volume aims to contain all the important contributions to the subject of acoustics from the pen of the last Professor W. C. Sabine. The greater part of these papers appeared in a number of different architectural journals and were therefore addressed to a changing audience, little acquainted with physical science, and to whose members the subject was altogether novel. Under these circumstances a certain amount of repetition was not only unavoidable, but desirable. Little attempt has been made to reduce this repetition but in one case an omission seemed wise. The material contained in the author's earliest papers on acoustics, which appeared in the Proceedings of the American Institute of Architects in 1898, is repeated almost completely in the paper which forms the first chapter of this volume; it has, therefore, been omitted from this collection with the exception of a few extracts which have been inserted as footnotes in the first chapter.

No apology is made for the preservation of the paper from the Proceedings of the Franklin Institute, for, though much of the material therein is to be found in the earlier chapters of this volume, the article is valuable as a summary, and as such it is recommended to the reader who desires to obtain a general view of the subject.

In addition to the papers already in print at the time of the author's death the only available material consisted of the manuscripts of two articles, one on Echoes, the other on Whispering Galleries, and the full notes on four of the lectures on acoustics delivered at the Sorbonne in the spring of 1917. Of this material, the first paper was discarded as being too fragmentary; the second, after some slight omissions and corrections in the text made necessary by the loss of a few of the illustrations, forms Chapter 11 of this volume; an abstract of so much of the substance of the lecture notes as had not already appeared in print has been made, of which part is to be found in the form of an Appendix and part is contained in some of the following paragraphs.

The reader may often be puzzled by reference to works about to be published but of which no trace is to be found in this volume.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.