Historical claims of talking and harmonizing echoes were debunked as folklore

Evidence

How could this happen? An octave shift of a voice filled with harmonics is explicable, as we shall see. Shifts of a third or fifth are considerably more difficult to imagine. Lord Rayleigh (figure 28.7) began his article by recounting some of the more fantastical stories about echoes, especially other harmonic echoes, and debunking if not entirely disproving them. For example, to the claim “At the Lake of Killarney, in Ireland, is a very celebrated harmonic echo, which renders an excellent second to any simple air played on a bugle,” Lord Rayleigh retorts “This must be a near connection of the equally celebrated Irish echo, which in reply to ‘How do you do!’ answers, ‘Very well, thank you!’” Father Mersenne about 300 years earlier found himself debunking the claim of an echo that would reply in Spanish when spoken to in French. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2632

Categorization

• CANDY: Rayleigh’s jibe about an Irish echo answering ‘How do you do!’ with ‘Very well, thank you!’ is easily quotable comic gold.