Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, on ventilation, warming and transmission of sound / abbreviated, with notes, by W.S. Inman.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee on Ventilation, Sound, etc.
Date:
1836
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Committee of the House of Commons, on ventilation, warming and transmission of sound / abbreviated, with notes, by W.S. Inman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    constructed on these principles. At the same time, if it was fixed that the Speaker's chair should have a place near the wall, which I presume may very probably be the case, it would be almost unnecessary to do any thing for the commu- nication of the sound ; as, if that were made a good reflect- ing surface, and inclined in such a manner that no reflection were kept up between wall and wall, he would require no peculiar arrangement, either to hear or to be heard, without any effort, in any part of the room. In that case, the Speaker would always be directing his voice, in point of fact, towards an absorbing surface ; for the Strangers' gallery must be opposite to him, and not in the side of the roof?—He would, under those circumstances; but at the same time the sound would be reflected, from the roof spreading from the situation in which he was placed on either side; the roof inclining on either side of the Speaker. Would you explain upon what principle you have a pre- ference for a square to a circular form ?—On this principle : whenever there are any concave surfaces, it is the same, generally speaking, with sound as with light; that is, from the angle which the sound makes as it falls upon the sur- face, it is necessarily collected into foci; and in circular rooms there are, accordingly, more or less points where the sound is heard with greater power, while it is comparatively deficient in other places. The object in the House of Com- mons being an equal transmission of sound, that is the reason why I give a preference to a flat surface. If you were understood rightly, you would depend principally on the ceiling for the reflection of the sound ; and you pro- pose to have walls of an absorbing surface ?—The part of the walls that are brought more immediately into play would be so extremely low, and converted at the same time into a kind of gallery, that perhaps, with the exception of that part where the Speaker may be placed, they could scarcely be said to have any of the properties of ordinary walls in reflecting sound. By adopting the circular form, you would bring the Mem-