Hello my friends.
We are facing an epidemic! No, it’s not the one that starts with a “C” that I’m writing about. Rather, it’s the epidemic of NOISE!!
Some humor for a change...
Why am I writing about this? Well, for one thing, it’s not a topic that is frequently brought up (unless you live near an airport or race track). And second, with all the talk about our freedoms and rights lately, one has forgotten that a fundamental need, a fundamental right and privilege is that of peace and quiet.
Peace and quiet is healthy! It’s healing. It soothes the soul. It allows us to think…
Since the 9th century, man has continually created more ways to make noise. Sure, nature has always had its noise-makers: thunder, waterfalls, glacier calving, waves breaking, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc., but for the most part, these are intermittent and can sometimes actually be soothing and pleasant as for example, when my wife and I watching a tremendous thunder and lightning storm at night from our new sun-room - it gives us warm fuzzies (sometimes). But these things are part of the natural order, part of God’s creation; we didn’t invent them.
Granted, since the beginning of history man has been noisy: shouting, screaming, pounding away with hammers and various other tools to build and/or tear down. However, with the discovery and use of gunpowder around 904 AD, we’ve found more and more ways to disturb the peace. Over the decades/centuries, various ways of utilizing gunpowder were developed: explosives, guns, fireworks, all of which make a tremendous amount of noise, enough to permanently damage the ears when unprotected and prolonged.
While I may be missing some things in-between, we’re going to jump to the year 1698 when the first steam engine was invented. Steam engines don’t really sound imposing, but the noise they could generate was alarming; couple it with the whistles that used steam and you’ve got quite a cacophony of ear-splitting sound.
This leads us to the locomotive, and then the invention of the first internal combustion engine around 1876. We all know where that led – we’ve got an estimated 1.4 BILLION cars presently on the road! And, subsequently thousands of miles of UGLY sound barriers along highways to try and decrease the increasing noise levels!
So, with the advent of the industrial age and modern technology, for fun, let’s just make a list of “noise-makers” that simply didn’t exist several hundred years ago. We’ll make it simple and divide it into indoors and outdoors as far as I can come up with (feel free to add to it).
I’d really like to be able to open the windows and let in fresh air without the potential for hearing damage (as I’m writing this, the cars at our local race track are running – at about 60-70 decibels if you’re standing outside - 3/4 miles away). And, I certainly don't want to add to the noise by trying to drown it out with even more noise! So, with all that behind us, this is the list that we came up with off the top of our ears, er, heads!
Outside:
- Humming transformers
- Race cars of all types
- Passenger vehicles of all types
- Commercial vehicles of all types
- Motorcycles
- Motor boats
- Jet skis
- Powered para-gliders, hang gliders, trikes, ultralights
- Four wheelers
- Drones
- Planes
- Jets (commercial and military)
- Helos
- Backup alarms on vehicles
- Horns
- Car Stereos
- Lawn mowers
- RC airplanes, cars, boats
- Leaf Blowers
- Chainsaws
- Chippers
- Edgers
- Air compressors
- Air hammers
- Pressure washers
- Hot tub jets
- Pool filtration units
- “The Hum” if you CAN hear that
Inside:
- Washing machines
- Dryers
- Refrigerators
- Stereos
- Heat pumps
- Air conditioners
- Refrigerators
- Power tools – drills, saws, power hammers, etc.
- Printers
- Cell phones
- Vacuum cleaners
- Flushing toilets
- Electric razors
- Anything electric that moves
- Alarms (house/clock/oven, microwave timers)
- Running water
- TVs
- Video games
- Blow dryers
- Computer towers
- Various kitchen machines: blenders, food processors, coffee grinders, cake mixers, dehydrators, bread-makers, etc.
- Bathroom fans
- Portable heaters
- Radon removers
- Attic fans
- Floor and desk fans
- Microwaves
- Stovetop fans
- Musical instruments
- Coffee makers (Kurig)
These are just the things we could come up with but I’m sure there are many, many more disturbers of the peace.
