Logan Republican | 1902-09-18 | Page 3 | Mystery of Lost Sounds

Mystery of Lost Sounds. An English scientist noticing the mysterious way in which sounds sometimes some-times are lost In spaco recently undertook under-took an Interesting experiment In a balloon. Ho found that whllo still within talking distance of earth all sound of tho human volco was quenched In the mere indistingulsha- Iblo hum of tho human hlvo. Equally lost was tho striking of clocks and ringing of bdlls, but a dog's bark rang out clearly. So, also, tho bellow of a cow far out In some field, would peno-trato peno-trato above tho babel of a busy town, whllo tho screeching of railway whistles whis-tles pierced tho sky up to three miles and, gathered In from vast areas, oft-en oft-en reached an Intensity positively painful, Tho strangest of all acoustic -phenomena Is tho unaccountable si-lonco si-lonco which sometimes ensues when sound Is to bo expected. In many enses It has been proved that, speaking speak-ing literally, tho lost sounds Issuing from a point on a scacoadt wcro not extinguished, for they wcro heard distinctly farther out at sea. Heavy salutes unheard by people within twenty or thirty miles bavo been plainly audlblo at -a much greater distance, dis-tance, and this apparently not In a dl-i dl-i oct Ion favored by , the wind. The scientist who conducted tho balloon oxperlmont offers tho theory that con--ditlons of tho aerial currents rather lj- than tho direction of tho wind are re sponsible for theso phenomena.