Article ID: CBB498610775

The disputed sound of the aurora borealis: sensing liminal noise during the First and Second International Polar Years, 1882–3 and 1932–3 (2022)

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Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Volume: 76
Issue: 1
Pages: 5-26

This paper discusses heightened interest in the potential audibility of the aurora borealis during the First and Second International Polar Years (IPYs) of 1882–3 and 1932–3. Galvanized by a growing volume of local accounts expressing belief in the elusive noises, written by the inhabitants of the Shetland Islands, northern Canada, and Norway, auroral researchers of each era were determined to establish the objectivity of auroral sound. There was considerable speculation within the auroral research community as to whether the apparent noises were imagined or illusory, connected to discussions about the possibility of low-altitude aurorae. The anglophone auroral sound debate primarily played out within the official reports of IPY expeditions, the journal Nature, and a Shetland Island newspaper. I argue that the embodied senses were used exclusively to register the liminal sounds of the aurora across the two periods, despite developments in sound recording technologies, the primacy of mechanical objectivity, and instruments transported to the polar regions for the investigation of visual features of the phenomenon. This overlooked episode complicates narratives of polar science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by revealing a faith in the corporeal senses and the significant role of amateur observers.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB498610775/

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Authors & Contributors
Marshall, Owen
Adin E. Lears
Amery, Fiona
Keisuke Yamada
Pratt, Joseph A.
Parr, Joy
Concepts
Sound
Auditory perception
Auroras
Noise and noise abatement
Senses and sensation; perception
Technology and society
Time Periods
20th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
19th century
18th century
Stone age
Places
Canada
Norway
United States
Arctic regions
Germany
Toronto (Ontario)
Institutions
International Polar Year (1932-1933)
International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics
Natural History Society of Montreal
Académie Royale des Sciences (France)
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