October 30, 2004

sound mirrors "Acoustic mirrors were built on the south and northeast coasts of England between about 1916 and the 1930s."

"The 'listening ears' were intended to provide early warning of incoming enemy aeroplanes and airships about to attack coastal towns. With the development of faster aircraft the sound mirrors became less useful, as an aircraft would be within sight by the time it had been located, and radar finally rendered the mirrors obsolete."

posted by dhruva 20 years ago
  • cool.
  • I love this sort of history/trivia. Great link. Thanks dhurva.
  • Wow! Very cool post, dhurva. Ditto, what squid said. )))))))))
  • Yeah, i was just about to post about these things. the main problem with them is that they picked up all other noises as well. The people in the listening booths would be almost deafened by a bird squawking nearby. I have a weird relationship with acoustic sound anomalies such as these. it seems wherever i go, there are echo chambers nearby. I fricken love it. Cool post Dhurva. Thanks.
  • woo wee... good one, Dhurva! Can we actually stand in one of these and talk to someone far away? Would another UK monkey care to make a date of it?
  • sorry.
  • I've used one of these. It's quite amusing.
  • I'm sure these are elsewhere, but at the VLA in Magdelena, New Mexico (onsite, not at the NRAO center), there's a couple of acoustic parabolic mirrors, outdoors, focused on each other about, oh, fifty feet apart (IIRC). One person can whisper in one while another can hear him/her.
  • Played with one in the Singapore Science Centre, where the mirrors were about twenty-thirty feet apart. It was awesome. Been itching to try one where I can't see the other person. That would be very cool.
  • interesting history--Thanks