Article ID: CBB001181099

Listening to machines: Industrial noise, hearing loss and the cultural meaning of sound (2006)

unapi

Description Ever since the eighteenth century, physicians have claimed that the noise of hammering and other industrial activities may induce hearing loss. Protecting workers' hearing by the use of earplugs was one of the solutions proposed, particularly after the Second World War. Employees, however, often declined the medics' help. This article examines the role of the cultural meaning of sound in the clash between the expert definitions of the problem of industrial noise and the response of workers on the shop-floor. It does so by focusing on campaigns to persuade workers to wear earplugs in the Netherlands and Germany. In addition, it reveals how -- in a wider Western context -- even the position of hearing protection among alternative strategies for fighting industrial noise, such as quieting machines and masking noise with music, came to be influenced by the symbolism of sound and cultures of listening. (Abstract from: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/maney/isr/2006/00000031/00000004/art00004)


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001181099/

Similar Citations

Chapter Hagood, Mack; (2012)
Quiet Comfort: Noise, Otherness, and the Mobile Production of Personal Space (/isis/citation/CBB001421313/)

Book Adin E. Lears; (2020)
World of Echo: Noise and Knowing in Late Medieval England (/isis/citation/CBB394368465/)

Book Goldsmith, Mike; (2012)
Discord: The Story of Noise (/isis/citation/CBB001253047/)

Chapter Payer, Peter; (2006)
Vom Geräusch zum Lärm. Zur geschichte des Hörens im 19 und fruhen 20 jahrhundert (/isis/citation/CBB001181316/)

Book Alison E. Martin; Dam, Beatrix van,; Missinne, Lut; (2017)
Travel writing in Dutch and German, 1790-1930: modernity, regionality, mobility (/isis/citation/CBB826732196/)

Thesis Neisius, Erich; (1989)
Geschichte der arbeitsmedizinischen Lärmforschung in Deutschland (/isis/citation/CBB001181306/)

Article Chao, Noelle; (2013)
Listening to the Voice on the Page: Joshua Steele and Technologies of Recording (/isis/citation/CBB001201891/)

Book Forty, Adrian; (1986)
Objects of desire: Design and society since 1750 (/isis/citation/CBB001180095/)

Article Owen Marshall; (July 2021)
The Maniac-Making Machine: A Media History of Delayed Auditory Feedback (/isis/citation/CBB118537584/)

Article Chen-Pang Yeang; Joan Lisa Bromberg; (2015)
Understanding Noise in Twentieth-Century Physics and Engineering (/isis/citation/CBB459713561/)

Book James G. Mansell; (2017)
The Age of Noise in Britain: Hearing Modernity (/isis/citation/CBB059715162/)

Article Vaillant, Derek; (2003)
Peddling noise: Contesting the civic soundscape of Chicago, 1980--1913 (/isis/citation/CBB001181394/)

Book Kahn, Douglas; (1999)
Noise, water, meat: A history of sound in the arts (/isis/citation/CBB001181259/)

Chapter Radovac, Lilian; (2012)
The “War on Noise”: Sound and Space in La Guardia's New York (/isis/citation/CBB001421320/)

Book Smith, Mark M.; (2001)
Listening to nineteenth-century America (/isis/citation/CBB001181373/)

Thesis Whitney, Tyler; (2013)
Spaces of the Ear: Literature, Media, and the Science of Sound, 1870--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB001562886/)

Authors & Contributors
Marshall, Owen
Dam, Beatrix van,
Adin E. Lears
Mansell, James G.
Missinne, Lut
Vaillant, Derek
Concepts
Sound
Noise and noise abatement
Auditory perception
Sound studies
Technology
Sound Recording Industry
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
18th century
Medieval
21st century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Germany
England
Netherlands
New York (U.S.)
Chicago (Illinois, U.S.)
Institutions
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment