Noise went unrecognized as harm because it could not be measured

Evidence

The inability to recognize noise during the early phases of the Industrial Revolution as a factor contributing to the multiplicatory toxicity of the new working environments is one of the strangest facts in the history of aural perception. We must try to determine the reason. It may be partly explained as a result of the inability to measure sounds quantitatively. A sound might be recognized as unpleasantly loud, but until Lord Rayleigh built the first practical precision instrument for the measurement of acoustic intensity in 1882, there was no way of knowing for certain whether a subjective impression had an objective basis. The decibel, as a means of establishing definite sound pressure levels, did not come into extended use until 1928. — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 262

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: does measurement-ability drive perception of other sensory harms? A generalizable claim.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 262
• XREF: connects to: Noise pollution is excluded from global environmental rankings for lack of data — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1627; Noise represents wasted energy in any engineered system — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 677; Loss of quiet erodes the very awareness needed to notice its loss — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 896 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Noise is fundamentally subjective rather than an objective property of sound #expands (0.75) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 614
• Loss of quiet erodes the very awareness needed to notice its loss #expands (0.60) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 896