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Show Absolute Silence Found Unbearable in U. S. Test FORT MONMOUTH, N. j! Silence Si-lence dead, absolute silence. Have you ever wondered what it would be like? Not the stillness of a quiet room, but no noise at all. Take a tip from the army signal corps engineers it's no fun. They tried it and said they couldn't stand it. The tests were made in a new "silent chamber" perfected by the signal corps to help reduce the noise of military equipment. .' About 30 minutes of absolute silence was just about all anyone could stand. After 30 minutes the engineers became uneasy. After a lew hours, the army said, the dead fiilence produced "pronounced adverse ad-verse psychological effects." The room is used to measure the noise of field .equipment. The army said even a small electric generator in the field was enough to reveal the position of the soldier and endanger his life. Now engineers en-gineers can find out just how much noise it makes and quiet it enough to prevent detection. Signal corps officials said the walls, floor, and ceilings of the new .chamber .are covered with wedge-shaped wedge-shaped hunks of fiberglass, pointing point-ing out into the room. The pieces are bound at the large ends to an electrostatic shield. The shield is grounded to remove any surplus energy. There is complete stillness in the room. But the room wouldn't do for a radio station. Spokesmen said musical musi-cal tones are flat, monotonous and very dull in an absolutely soundproof sound-proof room. |